The James Potter
by emilycanthram123
Summary: James is completely in love with Lily, but he irritates her so much she hates him. When he changes, her feelings towards him change too. Will they end up together? Story follows James and Lily's relationship from hate to adoration.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey, this is my new story about the relationship between James and Lily. I know this chapter is pretty boring, but it will get better, I promise! Also, I always update quicker if I get reviews, so please do! Thank you so much!_

_Millie xxx_

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Chapter 1**

James slid open the compartment door and collapsed in the seat lining the wall. His attention span was less than short and he soon pulled out a piece of parchment and started scribbling on it. He doodled aimlessly, his mind elsewhere. He looked down at his hand, before stretching it out, and absent-mindedly writing "L.E" on the webbing between his finger and thumb.

"Hey." Sirius Black entered the tiny compartment, pushing his trunk up on the railing above him. James stuffed the quill and parchment back into his bag and grinned at his friend.

"Hey. Get here alright? Or did your family kill you before you reached London?"

"Very funny. No, though my dear father nearly hexed me when I pointed out the clear advantages of the Muggle motorcycle."

James snorted, then waved as Remus Lupin appeared at the compartment window. He sat down next to Sirius, pulling out a book.

"Studying already? Are you mentally ill?" Sirius asked, laughing.

"You won't be laughing when it's a week until we take our OWL's," Remus muttered. Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but decided it wasn't worth it. Instead, he directed his attention back to James.

"Do you think Wormtail missed the train?"

"Wouldn't be surprised." James answered. "But it's more likely he's got lost in the corridor. Wouldn't be the first time."

Sirius grinned.

"I'm bored of this carriage already. Want to stretch your legs?" Sirius suggested. James nodded and pulled himself up.

"Coming, Moony?" He looked down at Remus.

"Will you leave me alone if I don't?" He peered up from beneath his book.

"No."

"Then I doubt I have a choice," he sighed, closing the book and hauling himself up from the seat.

The three made their way down the train. James strode out in front, scanning the carriages. He wasn't really looking for Peter Pettigrew, but for someone else, who was a lot more important. He spotted her sitting with her friends in a nearby compartment. He opened the door and leant on it, a lazy grin stretched across his face.

"Evans. Evans's friends." He grinned. The smile dropped off her pretty face as she saw him.

"So you're not even waiting until we reach Hogwarts to irritate and annoy me." She stated, glaring at him.

He faked being upset. "How rude!" He laughed, clutching his chest. "You've really upset me now, but I might forgive you…if you'll agree to go out with me?"

She sighed, got up and slammed the compartment door shut.

"Nice try Prongs." Sirius laughed from behind him.

"Shut it."

"No, I think that's what Lily did with the door when you asked her out. Again." Remus said dully. James ignored him and pressed his face up against the compartment window. She looked prettier than he remembered, if that was even possible. The autumn sun glinted from outside onto her red hair, making it sparkle golden in the darkened carriage. James bit his lip, and slid the door open again. Lily frowned at him.

"Potter, what do you want?" She said exasperatedly.

"Well, I did want to see if Wormtail was in here, but he is obviously not. Seeing as I'm in here-" James felt a hand yank him away from the carriage. He looked down to see Peter's reddened and slightly sweaty face staring up at him in adoration.

"Were you looking for me James?" Wormtail asked hopefully.

"Uh…yes." He said unconvincingly. This was enough for Peter, and a smile lit up his face instantly.

"Let's move out." Sirius muttered. "Before Wormtail hugs you."

James laughed and took a last look at Lily before making his way back down the train.

"We should probably get our uniforms on now." Remus suggested, pulling his trunk down from the rack.

"Bit early Remus. We normally do it about ten minutes before arriving." Sirius said, looking confused.

"I kind of need to be somewhere." Remus said, pulling his shirt over his head. Sirius narrowed his eyes and looked at James. A slow smile spread across their faces simultaneously. James started laughing.

"What?" Remus asked defensively.

"You're a _prefect?_" James cackled. Sirius joined him.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Remus frowned.

"Oh no, he's getting angry, James!" Sirius said in mock fear. Remus rolled his eyes.

"What if he docks us some house points?" James laughed.

"This is precisely why I didn't tell you!" Remus said, pulling on his robes angrily. Sirius looked over at James, who stopped laughing abruptly, looking at the window. Lily stood there, looking irritated about the fact that she _was _stood there. James smiled at her in a way he thought was unbelievably sexy and made his way into the corridor.

"Hey, Evans. Changed your mind?"

"Surprisingly, no." She said sarcastically. "I'm here to see Remus."

James looked genuinely shocked.

"What? Why?" He looked back at his friend. "You don't like _him _do you?"

"Not if he's anything like you." She spat. "I'm here to ask him why he hasn't reported to the prefect's carriage yet."

"Are you," he gestured at her. "The other Gryffindor prefect?"

She nodded. He laughed.

"I don't see why that's funny." She said, looking at him in disbelief.

"I don't see why you won't go out with me," he said, smiling at her.

"Remus!" Lily screeched. "Will you please tell Potter to shut up, and come with me to the prefect's compartment immediately!" Her temper was permanently short whenever she was within ten feet of James. Which happened to be all the time, seeing as he was completely obsessed with her. Remus hurried out of the compartment, with a quick wave to his friend.

Sirius flopped down in his seat, wiping a small tear from his eye, still laughing a little.

"Ah, we're going to have fun with that this year." He smiled. James wasn't listening.

"Why do you think they've made Moony prefect?" He asked.

"Are you jealous?" Sirius teased, making a fake sympathetic face at his friend.

"No."

"Really? Because I think someone's jealous that Moony will be spending a lot of his time with a certain someone…"

"Sirius! Shut up! I'm not jealous of Moony! He's about as good with girls as Peter!"

"Yes, I think someone is definitely jealous…"

James picked up Remus's book and chucked it at Sirius.

"Ow!" Sirius rubbed his head. "Whatever. Don't blame me when they become head boy and girl and start spending _all _their time together…"

James sighed and ignored him, looking down at the scrawl on his hand. He ran his finger over her initials and smiled.

"Don't worry James!" Peter squeaked. I know she's going to go out with you this year.

"That'll be a first." Sirius laughed. "He's only been chasing her for, how long again is it James? Two years?" He laughed.

James grinned. "That may be true, but who could resist _the James Potter?" _

Sirius high-fived him. "Alright Prongs." They laughed, and peered out of the now-dark window.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey, I know I've updated really quickly, but it's because I hate not being able to continue reading. By the way, sorry about the really crap title, I couldn't come up with anything better in five minutes. If anyone has a better suggestion they wouldn't mind sharing please review with it or PM me. Thanks,_

_Millie xxx_

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Chapter 2**

Lily tried to ignore the "_pssts!_" and pieces of paper coming at her from across the room. She didn't need to turn around to know who was trying to get her attention, and she didn't feel like talking to him at the best of times.

"Lily!" James whispered, throwing yet another paper ball at her head.

"Potter, leave me alone!" She hissed, spinning around.

"I just wanted to see your face." He smiled.

"Go away!"

"Will you go out with me if I do?" He asked. He knew he was pushing his luck, but he felt that if he just gave up then she'd never say yes.

"No!"

"Then no can do I'm afraid." He grinned. She gritted her teeth and stared down at her transfiguration homework. They'd only been back a week and he was already terrorising her. Alice Prewett sat down next to her and smiled. She looked over at James, then lowered her voice.

"So how many times has he asked you out this time?" She murmured.

"I've lost count." Lily muttered back, her teeth still ground together.

"Maybe if you just asked him to stop…"

"Tried that in third year. He just did that annoying grin of his and said that 'deep down I'm in love with _the J_ames Potter.'" She mocked his voice. Alice snorted.

"Are you?" Alice asked suddenly.

"No!" Lily said in disgust. She realised how loudly she'd said that as the whole common room looked up at her.

"Alright, alright, stop staring at Evans. That's my job," James announced to the room, before looking over at Lily, as if what he was doing was actually helpful. Lily sighed and picked up her books.

"Hey," James said looking worried. "Where you going?"

"Away from you." She said angrily.

Sirius laughed. "Nice one Lily."

"Shut up Black." She muttered, making her way to the girls dormitories. She entered and saw her roommates giggling.

"Hey guys," she sighed, collapsing onto her bed. She stared at the ceiling.

"I know, he is so cute!" Emily, one of her friends said excitedly. "All that dark hair…"

"He's just got that attitude…" Mary, her other companion agreed.

"Who are you guys talking about?" Lily said incredulously, knowing that she wouldn't like the answer.

Mary bit her lip. "We know you don't like him, but we were talking about Sirius."

Emily giggled at the mention of his name. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Whatever guys." She got up, and decided to leave. Those two were already irritating her. She often thought them trivial, and it seemed they weren't improving with age. Lily had thought about age a lot recently. She was in her fifth year, and it didn't seem like James was going to ever stop irritating her. She didn't really know why he even bothered so much, it wasn't like she'd ever even led him on. She had come to the end of the stairs and was in the common room once more.

"Evans!" James called. She ignored him and walked over to the portrait hole, exiting quickly. She noticed a figure, hardly recognisable in the shadows. She knew the figure well though, and she smiled at her best friend.

"Severus!" She hugged him. He smiled awkwardly at her, his greasy hair catching the moonlight. She grinned at her, still touching his shoulder. "How are you? I haven't seen you all summer!"

"I've been…busy. I kept in touch!" He said hastily.

"I know." Lily smiled. "I got your owls. It kept arriving at the wrong window. Petunia woke the whole street up she screamed so loud!"

Severus laughed. He was only ever truly happy when things were like this between him and Lily.

"So why is a Slytherin hanging around in the shadows outside the Gryffindor common room?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Well, you know I don't really have many friends other than you, and I can't exactly come and find you…" he tailed off.

"Well, whatever. It's just nice to see you."

There was silence for a minute, then Severus broke it.

"How's Potter." He spat out the name like it was poison in his mouth. Lily pressed her lips together.

"Don't get me started." She sighed.

"Why do you put up with him. Why don't you just hex him?" Severus asked, the hatred sounding in his voice.

"Severus please. I'm not going to sink to his level. Unlike you." She prodded him in the arm.

"At least I stick up for you. I'll happily curse him the next time I see him." He muttered under his breath.

"Really, Snivellus, there's no need to be so violent." A voice said from the portrait hole. Lily didn't need to look to see who the voice belonged to.

"James, leave us alone." Lily said through gritted teeth.

"I don't think he was addressing you Lily, just your slimy friend from the shadows." Sirius came up from behind James.

"Couldn't face him alone could you? Need some support from Black?" Lily said, directing her anger towards James.

"Snivellus is the one protecting himself with a girl" James said coolly. At that moment Severus stepped out from behind Lily, his wand raised. James was too quick, and in a flash of red light Snape was sent sprawling back.

"No!" Lily stood in front of James's wand, forcing it down with her hands. "Leave him alone! What's he ever done to you?"

"Evans, don't get me started." James started to get distracted by Lily's face when Severus pulled himself up and directed a curse at James. Lily was in the way. The curse hit her square in the back and she was flung against the steps of the portrait hole. She felt the marble slam into her forehead and she winced, holding back the inevitable tears.

"Lily!" James roared, then turned his attention towards Snape. Severus looked at Lily, turned and ran. James ran after him for a couple of paces, gaining on him easily, but stopped. He saw Lily touch her head and bring her fingers down. Red liquid oozed over her fingers.

"Oh my God. Lily, are you okay. Please say you're okay." He said desperately, looking at the cut. She smacked his hand away.

"Why can you never just leave me alone?" She shouted at him.

"Lily, I think you need to go to the hospital wing." He said, his eyes wide.

She pulled herself up. "I'm going nowhere with you. Severus may have just ran away, but he's still ten times the man that you'll ever be." She spat, marching back through the portrait hole, muttering the password to the fat lady as she went.

She ran up the stairs to the bathroom and tended to the cut. It wasn't as bad as it looked, only really a graze. She sat down on the edge of the bath and covered her face with her hands, as tears streamed out from her face.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry, I know this chapter is really short, but I came to a good point in it and decided to stop. Please keep reading!_

_Millie xxx_

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Chapter 3

James walked out of what had been the third detention this week. He kicked the pipes running along the wall as he thought about the reason he had been in it in the first place. Since the incident with Lily the other day, he'd decided to make Severus pay for what he did in the most painful way possible. Sirius was, of course, more than happy to help if it involved frequently cursing Snivellus, and so this is how they'd amused themselves for the last three days. James noticed Lily coming towards him, an angry and determined face chiselled onto her features.

"Evans." he smiled. "Knew you'd love me for what happened-"

"Shut up. I came to ask you to stop cursing Severus. If not for me, then for Gryffindor, we've lost about fifty point in three days from you."

James mouth hung open.

"Sorry Evans, no can do."

"Oh really? Why is that?" she said sarcastically, scowling.

"Because what he did was disgusting."

"It's nothing to do with you!" She said angrily. "If you and Black hadn't shown up nothing would have happened in the first place!"

"You're blaming me for this?" He looked genuinely shocked. She nodded.

"Stay out of my life." She spat, before turning and leaving. James waited until she'd turned the corner, then threw his fists against the wall in frustration.

James sank into the sofa where Remus was sitting.

"What's up?" Remus asked, not looking up from his Herbology homework.

"Nothing." James muttered. "Lily's pissed of at me for cursing Snivellus."

"Well, that's hardly anything new. Why should this time be any different?"

"Because he's a slimy git who deserves to be punished."

Remus sighed and gave up on the conversation.

"Hey." Sirius and Peter flopped down onto to the floor beside their friends. James didn't reply.

"Remus?" Sirius asked. Moony turned to face him. "Could you do my Muggle Studies essay for me? I've got Quidditch practice." James snorted.

"Since when are you doing Muggle Studies?"

"Since my parents hated all things Muggle. It's naturally my favourite subject." He smirked. "How was detention?"

"Four hundred lines for sticking up for someone. How do you think it was?" James laughed. Then his face became serious. "Worst part is that Lily actually blames me for what happened."

"No way." Sirius said in disbelief. "Did she not feel Snivellus' curse?"

"Apparently not."

"Whatever. I think something in Snivellus' greasy locks is poisoning her mind." Sirius grinned. James looked over as Lily and her friends entered the common room. He noticed a few of them giggling and pointing over their way. He probably should have been used to girls throwing themselves at his feet by now.

"James!" Sirius whispered, trying not to register the angry glares Lily was shooting at James. "James!"

"What?"

"You see that girl?" He pointed at one of Lily's friends. She was pretty, nothing by Lily's standards of course, but James doubted it really mattered to Sirius what they looked like. James was surprised he hadn't dated the whole year by now.

"Yeah…" James said tiredly, knowing where Sirius was going with this.

"D'you think I should ask her out? I think she's into me!" He said in an excited whisper.

"Yeah sure. Whatever." James said in a bored tone. Sirius pulled himself up and flicked the dark hair out of his eyes, before heading to the table where his new object of affection was sitting. James noticed Lily roll her eyes and leave in disgust. Normally he'd take any opportunity to ask her out, but he felt that after this evenings episode he probably would get slapped. He was not quite sure what her was most angry about, what Snape had done to Lily, the fact that he was getting punished for it, or that Lily blamed him for what happened. As if he would ever, could ever hurt her. He knew what he should do to get her to forgive him, even if he was nothing to do with it. He sighed and made his way to the portrait hole, where Lily was standing with her head against the wall, eyes closed.

"Lily?" She smiled, then saw who it was.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want Potter?" He ran a hand through his hair sheepishly.

"Look, I know you think I'm responsible for Snivellus' disgusting and cowardly behaviour, so I'm apologising." He breathed. She looked at him in shock.

"_You _are apologising to _me?_" She said incredulously.

"Yeah," he said smirking. "Don't look so surprised."

"I just never thought I'd get an apology out of _the _James Potter," she said in a mock baritone. He frowned. Then she did something he really didn't expect. She smiled at him.

"It's okay, it was wrong of me to accuse you of anything anyway." He grinned triumphantly, but she hadn't finished. "But I want you to leave me and Severus alone."

"But-" he protested.

"Shut up Potter." She said, turning her back on him as she returned into the common room.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry this took a while, I've been busy and I didn't want this chapter to be as crap as my other ones. Please keep reading :)_

_Millie xxx_

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Chapter 4

Lily tried to ignore the notes piling up on her desk. For once the pestering messages were not from James, but from Severus, who was sitting on the table closest to hers. She removed the hand propping her head up and unfolded the note.

_Sorry._

She crumpled it up in her hand angrily. She hadn't talked to Severus for over a month. It was nearly Christmas, and she wasn't going to cave that easily.

"Lily!" Severus whispered. "Lily look at me!"

She turned, tears pricking at her eyes.

"I'm really, really sorry. Please forgive me. I want my best friend back." He looked at her sadly.

"You hurt me, Sev, and then you just left me with Potter and Black, and it was awful, and-" she was getting hysterical.

"I know! But I'm so sorry, really I am. Lily, you've got to believe me, I'm never going to do anything like that again, I promise."

"Okay." Lily smiled, her eyes wet. She reached her hand over to Severus's and squeezed it for a second, before returning to her transfiguration. She didn't see her friend smiling sadly to himself, while he bent over his essay.

"See you later, Sev." She hugged him and waved as she walked down the corridor, strait into James. Her books fell onto the floor, and he immediately stooped down to help her pick them up, much to her annoyance.

"Watch out Evans." He grinned, his breath tickling her. He peered around her to see Snape scowling at him and grabbed her arm as she was walking away, pulling her into a one armed hug.

"Get off me Potter!" She spat, furious, wrenching herself free and marching down the corridor.

"I love you too," he called after her, receiving no answer. He knew he'd overstepped the line, but he just didn't get why she'd rather hang out with a slimy toad than him. Moony had suggested that maybe Snape was less irritating towards her than James, but the whole situation last month had proved that wrong, and yet Lily had forgiven him for it anyway. James was arrogant, and he genuinely believed she would realise how amazing he was sooner or later, but a little part of him was worried every time she rejected him that they would never be together.

"Hey James," a group of girls leaning against the corridor wall waved in what they perceived as sexily, before gigging loudly. James smiled half-heartedly at them and quietly muttered something in response, then slung his bag over his shoulder and carried on down the corridor.

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Lily found transfiguration hard, but was not prepared to admit that. She got excellent marks, but she needed to concentrate fully at the best of times. Today this was proving impossible, due to Marlene going on and on about Sirius. This was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, seeing as Black was on Lily's "least enjoyable to meet in a corridor" list, coming second only to Potter. So having Sirius's new biggest fan sitting next to her was not her idea of an enjoyable afternoon.

"I can't believe he asked me out, it was just so romantic! First he-" Lily had heard this story about twelve times already, but she let her friend gush about Black for a few minutes anyway. She saw a boy smiling at her and gave a small smile back. Thomas O'Stanton had been in Lily's year since first year, but she'd never really spoken to him because he was in Hufflepuff and was nearly as shy as her.

"I guess she's talking about Black," he grinned and gestured towards Marlene. Her mouth moved up and down in speech but Lily paid no attention to the words coming out.

"Yeah, she's totally smitten." Lily smiled.

"Is he going to break her heart?"

"Probably, but he seems to really like her. She's less…shallow than the girls he's been with before." Lily elaborated. Thomas nodded as the bell rang to signal end of lessons.

"Lily, are you listening to anything I'm saying?" Marlene frowned.

"Err…yes." Lily said hopefully. Marlene was unconvinced by Lily's terrible acting, and was about to get offended when she spotted Sirius leaning against the frame of the door, an arrogant smile plastered on his handsome face.

"Whatever," she smiled. "See you later, Lils." She walked over to Black and linked her arm round his, disappearing down the corridor.

"Left, again." Lily smiled at Thomas. "I guess it's always like that when your best friend's got someone they like as much as Marlene likes Black."

"Yeah. I guess you'll just have to find someone like that yourself." Thomas looked hopefully at Lily, but she didn't notice. She misinterpreted him and snorted.

"What, like _Potter_?" She said laughing.

"That's not exactly who I was thinking of." He smiled. "Besides, Potter's a prick." Lily threw her hands up in the air theatrically.

"Finally! I was beginning to think I was the only one in this school who saw it."

"We're small in number." Thomas laughed.

"Oh well. No, I'm afraid it's hopeless Thomas." Lily was finding it very easy talking to the Irish Hufflepuff. "Potter will only hex anyone brave enough to ask me to Hogsmeade next weekend, and no one has ever liked me enough to get that far anyway."

"You just need to find someone brave enough to stand up to James."

"Easier said than done."

"I bet I can find someone," Thomas grinned, a twinkle in his eye.

"Okay," Lily nodded sarcastically. "You come tell me though." She smiled. They'd reached the corridor adjacent to the Gryffindor portrait hole. Thomas glanced at her.

"How come I've never seen you around school before?" Lily shrugged.

"I don't exactly socialise. I've been told I work to much." She laughed. Thomas smiled, satisfied with her answer.

"I'll see you around Lily." Thomas waved at her, heading back down another passageway.

"It's been nice talking someone sane." Lily called after him.

"And yourself. Don't forget our bet now." He winked at her. She smiled, before muttering the password and ducking her head into the common room.

"Lily!" Marlene called me over where the rest of my friends were sitting.

"Hey guys. Mar, where's Black?"

"Off with his friends somewhere, I dunno. What we really want to know is what was going on with you and Thomas today!"

"Yeah, I didn't even know you guys were friends." Alice looked slightly hurt, assuming that Lily had withheld vital information.

"We aren't really, we just got talking. He's really nice." Lily said, throwing a "I'm sorry" smile in Alice's direction.

"So is he taking you to Hogsmeade or something?" Elizabeth asked excitedly. Lily shook her head firmly.

"No, I really do _not fe_el like that about him."

"Why not, he's quite good looking!" She whined. Alice looked doubtfully at her. "What?"

"Well he's a bit short."

"What does it matter? If he's cute and Lily wants to go out with him-"

"Guys slow down." Lily stood in front of Alice and Elizabeth. "I don't like him, we're nothing more than friends. Chill."

"You may not want to be more than friends, but are you sure he doesn't?" Marlene said pointedly. Lily didn't answer for a while.

"Of course not. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got my Transfiguration essay to do."


	5. Chapter 5

_Hey, hope you like this chapter, I thought it was about time something happened. Anyway,_

_Millie xxx

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**Chapter 5**

"Padfoot," James said, looking over at Lily and the boy she was talking to.

"Uh huh."

"Who is that guy Evans is talking to?" Sirius pulled his head out of the homework he was hurriedly doing for the lesson they had in about two minutes.

"Dunno. She seems to know him pretty well though." He wasn't interested. James agreed with Sirius's observation, but that didn't mean he wanted to hear it.

"Hmm. She can't like him or anything, I mean _look _at him." Sirius ignored him, but James wasn't really looking for an answer anyway. He looked the boy up and down and found nothing complementary to say about him anyway. He was short, had glasses, and couldn't get away with them like James could, and had slightly bucked teeth giving him an almost-rodent like appearance. James's brow furrowed when he saw the boy say something Lily apparently found funny, as her face suddenly lit up with laughter. James's insides writhed. Why couldn't Lily look at him the way she looked at this loser? He didn't care if they were just friends, anything would be better than her hating him. From where he was standing James was altogether the better candidate; handsome, clever, funny. What more did she want?

He pulled over a pretty girl whom he didn't know very well. He pointed at Lily's friend.

"Who's that guy?"

"Thomas O'Stanton. He's in Hufflepuff." When James didn't say anything, she took this as an opportunity to say something else. "By the way James, you look really handsome today…" She gave him what she thought was a sultry smile, but he wasn't interested.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He said, not even looking at her. She flared her nostrils angrily, but instead aimed a sexy glace at Sirius before flouncing off down the corridor.

"I'm going to go talk to Lily." James muttered to Padfoot, not waiting for an answer.

Lily cringed into the wall as she saw James striding towards her and Thomas.

"Leave us alone, Potter." She sighed, crossing her arms.

"I've no interest in your friend, Evans, but was wondering if you'd noticed that Hogsmeade weekend's coming up, and I'd be delighted if you'd care to join me." He said smoothly, running a hand through his hair.

"I'd rather go out with an angry troll than you, Potter." Lily said coolly, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

"Unlucky mate." Thomas said in an Irish accent that suddenly irritated James so much. He pulled out his wand, but thought better of acting out right under the nose of the Gryffindor prefect.

"Watch yourself." He said menacingly turning his back on Thomas.

"Was that supposed to be a threat?" Thomas called after him. James looked back slightly, seeing Lily put her hand on his arm to stop him.

"Thomas drop it." She whispered. "He's not worth it." James felt a pang in his stomach, but tried to ignore it. James sighed and leant on the wall, pulling out a snitch from his pocket that he wasn't supposed to have, and began throwing it up into the air, letting it fly a bit and catching it. Wormtail soon joined him, but was content to stand and watch James show off in silence, letting Lily and Thomas's conversation become perfectly audible.

"What he said, about Hogsmeade weekend…" Thomas started. James did not like where this conversation was going.

"Yes." Lily's voice sounded clipped and unsure, but maybe that was James's imagination.

"Well, how about I take you." James caught the snitch and held it suddenly in his hands, waiting anxiously for her answer. It couldn't be yes, it _couldn't._ Lily hesitated, and James felt hoping like crazy that she's open her mouth and say no. She didn't.

"Yeah, okay. I guess it will be fun." She smiled. James felt the fury bubbling up inside him. No way was some messed up Irish guy going out with Lily before he was.

"_Furnunculus!_" James yelled, whirling around and pointing the curse at Thomas. Lily watched as her friend was sent sprawling backwards onto the floor. Thomas sat up, hundreds of hideous boils appearing all over his face.

"Epic." Sirius breathed from behind James, who, although impressed with the strength of his curse, was regretting what he just did. The look on Lily's face was worse than anger, she was actually upset about what he'd done to this Thomas guy.

"Potter," she said in shock. "What the hell have you done!" She knelt down beside O'Stanton, whose glasses had fallen off with the size of the boils on his face. Thomas's eyes and mouth were undetectable due to the disgusting spots filling his features.

"He had it coming to him." James said angrily.

"No he didn't!" Lily shrieked, pulling herself off the ground and whipping her wand out. "This is what I hate about you. You say you're in love with me, then spend every waking hour making my life unbearable!"

These words stung James. Sure, he knew she _thought_ she hated him, but he was pretty certain that underneath the layer of loathing she enjoyed the teasing and all the attention he gave her. He hated the idea of making her unhappy, but if it meant giving up on her…

"Go out with me, Evans. Go on, go out with me instead of this weird guy you've just met, and I promise I'll stop." He wasn't going to give up on any opportunity.

She laughed in disbelief. "You've just hexed one of my friends and you expect me to go out with you? You're unbelievable."

I grinned at her, my confidence back with me in a heartbeat. "I'm sure any girl would jump at the chance." Her mouth fell open.

"You're the most arrogant, idiotic pig I've ever met." She said in disgust. James glanced down at Thomas.

"Those are _not _going to heal quickly." Sirius pointed next to me, laughing in between words. Lily was attempting to lift him onto her shoulders, presumably to escort him to the hospital wing.

"I think I succeeded in making him ever uglier, yes, if that's what you mean." James grinned and high-fived Sirius. Lily whirled around, trying not to let her frustration and anger show on her face.

"Detention. Go see McGonagall after Lunch."

"Excellent. I'm assuming you'll be there, as you've given it to me?" James smirked.

"Surprisingly, no, you'll be alone." She spat, finally hauling a moaning Thomas onto her back and limping down the corridor.

"I guess this means you and little Thomas O'Boil will no longer be going on your date?" James tried to make it sound confident and mocking of him victim, but it came out as hopeful instead. Lily turned her head back and narrowed her eyes.

"I'm afraid you thought wrong." With that she tried to stalk off, however with a small, but rather heavy fifth year, this was more of a fast stagger.

James kicked the wall before leaning on it, his fists curled up into balls.

"What the hell is she doing going to Hogsmeade with that guy!" He exclaimed.

"Don't ask me mate." Sirius shrugged. "But I reckon a furnunculus curse isn't going to be enough with this guy. He seems to like her."

"Do you think I didn't see that Padfoot?" James spat angrily. Sirius signalled for him to calm down.

"Cool it Prongs." Sirius smiled mischievously. "What I think is in order is a little intimidation towards old Thomas, don't you think?"

A slow smile plastered James's face.

"Lets do it." He grinned. "The guy's going to wish he'd never laid eyes on Lily."


	6. Chapter 6

_Hey, sorry this took a little longer to update, I've been busy, and I want to start making my chapters longer, because at the moment they are FAR too short. However, I'm really bad at doing this, so if you have any tips please tell me :)_

_Millie xxx_

_

* * *

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**Chapter 6**

Lily tapped her fingers against her tankard of butterbeer impatiently, her nails chinking on the cold metal. She took a sip of the creamy liquid and licked her lips, looking down at her watch. She was sitting in the Three Broomsticks, and Thomas was thirty minutes late.

"He's not coming. He was never going to come." Lily muttered to herself, her voice cracking. She felt a few tears trickle down her cheeks, before she rubbed at her face angrily with her sleeve. She took a final sip of her drink and slammed down some money for it, before picking herself up and leaving the shop.

"_Spineless coward." _She thought, fury bubbling up inside her. She knew James was angry, she knew he was going to kick up a fuss, but she'd thought- hoped- that after everything Thomas had said he'd prove to be different, that he wouldn't just bend to James's will. She made an angry noise and kicked at the snow, showering a group of third years. She locked her jaw and marched purposely towards Zonko's. She'd never been, and wouldn't have a clue where to go if she hadn't seen the garish lights flashing in the window or the hoards of male students pouring out chasing each other with any number of magical pranks. She stepped, her mouth falling open. Fanged Frisbees zoomed over her head, while fireworks lit up the shop with loud bangs. The whole thing gave her a headache. She spotted James and his friends and stormed over to him.

"Potter!" She said furiously.

"Hey Evans." James's hand jumped to his hair. Then he looked around her. "Where's your date?"

"I think you know exactly where he is." Lily spat.

"If you mean in the hospital wing with a few curses on him? No, he got out yesterday." James smirked.

"You threatened him. You threatened him into not going out with me." Lily said, hardly believing anyone could do what she was accusing James of.

"No, I just cursed him until he didn't _want _to go out with you anymore." James smiled sweetly. "Totally different things, Evans."

"I would have been happy with him, why can't you see that?" Lily said angrily.

"Hey, Evans, if you want a boyfriend, what about Prongs?" Sirius put in, grinning, pointing towards James.

"Yeah, I personally think I'm an excellent candidate." James said arrogantly, pulling out a gift. "Got you a present too." Lily ignored him.

"I think you're an insufferable prat, whose fat head will soon be so big that you can't fly two meters off the ground on that stupid broomstick." She said, pausing for breath, and leaving the shop quickly. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

* * *

James watched Lily leave the shop and felt guilty. She seemed genuinely upset, and he never _wanted _to make her upset, only make her realise what an idiot that Thomas guy was, and how amazing he, James Potter, was. He wasn't going to show that he was worried about her feelings though.

"Well, that backfired." Remus said, frowning at James.

"Whatever Moony. I take it as a personal victory that she's not on that date with O'Stanton." James laughed.

"Yeah, but now Lily hates you more than ever."

"She'll soon see the error of her ways." James smiled. Remus sighed."You ever think she'd have liked you from the start if you hadn't just irritated her?" He suggested.

"What, and have him not do all the pranks that have made our name at this school? No way! You don't get anywhere by being _nice._" Sirius protested. Remus rolled his eyes.

"When Lily's always accusing you two of being bullies, why not prove her wrong?" Sirius looked at him, gob smacked.

"I cannot believe we're even getting near to this conversation. I am not going to act all good boy-ish just so Prongs can get his dream girlfriend!"

"Prongs, what do you think?" James ran a hand through his hair.

"I dunno. I really, _really,_ want to go out with Lily, but I don't think acting nice is going to achieve that. She must fancy me that way I am." He smirked. "God knows everyone else in the school does."

"Yeah, Prongs is right. Yes Lily's amazing, blah blah blah," he imitated James's mouth with his hand. "But she's mental in the not-loving Prongs department."

"I think Padfoot's right." Peter squeaked up.

"Fine, if you're sure." Remus breathed heavily.

* * *

Lily pressed down hard on the top of her trunk, squeezing it shut. She had bought far too many Christmas gifts, and despite having handed out most of the ones addressed to her friends, the contents of her trunk was still much larger than normal.

"Lils? Are you coming?" Alice waited for her at the door. "Present, by the way." She smiled, handing over a prettily wrapped gift.

Lily shook the package and hugged her friend. "Can you eat it by any chance?"

"And why would I get you anything else?" Alice grinned. Lily ripped of the paper and tipped the contents of the box onto her bed.

"Droobles, Bertie Bots, Fizzing Whizbees," Lily sorted through the sweets. "Aww, thank you Alice, there's loads here!"

Alice shrugged, motioning for her friend to follow them. "It's nothing Lils. Can we please go now?"

Lily nodded, hauling her trunk off the bed and following her friend down into the common room.

"Hey Alice." A boy in the year above waved at them. Lily noticed Alice waving very excitedly back. He grinned at them, then left to the boys dormitories.

"Err…Alice?" Lily smiled.

"He's called Frank. This summer we were both at my Grandma's garden party, I think our grandparents know each other or something. We got talking, and he's really nice. There's nothing going on though, that's why I didn't tell you."

"But you'd like something to be going on…" Lily laughed. Alice hit her playfully on the arm.

"Shh!"

Lily put a finger over her lips to signal that she was going to keep quiet. They made their way down the staircase and got to the entrance where the carriages were waiting. Lily used her wand to levitate the trunks into the back and climbed in. She spotted someone walking past to climb into another carriage. It was Thomas.

"_Amiculiens!_" Lily whispered, pointing her wand at O'Stanton. She stifled a laugh as his trousers suddenly fell down to around his ankles.

"Lily!" Alice said in shock. Lily almost immediately felt guilty.

"His own fault." She muttered. "Although Potter is more to blame than him I guess."

"I can't believe he actually bullied Thomas into not going out with you, I mean, who does that?" Alice was almost as shocked at the situation as Lily was. Lily shook her head.

"He must really, _really,_ like you."

"I don't think that's what it is at all. If he actually cared about me he wouldn't do these things. I think this is all just a game to him. Maybe I'm the only thing he's ever had to try for."

"And will he succeed?" Alice grinned.

"Not in a million years." Lily smiled back.

* * *

James slumped down on a seat next to Sirius, who was loudly singing Christmas carols.

"Padfoot, shut up." he elbowed him.

"How rude." Sirius pretended to be offended. Then he suddenly ducked. James looked at the window and saw Marlene and another girl whom he didn't know peering in through the window. His hand jumped to his hair, but he soon lowered it when he saw that Lily wasn't with them.

"Sirius, what's up?" He whispered.

"Have they gone?" Sirius answered urgently. James nodded and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's going on with you and Marlene? Are you not going out anymore or something?" James asked confusedly.

"I dunno. The whole things kind of faded." Sirius explained.

"You've been going out for a term and it's 'Faded'" Remus said doubtfully. "So you basically mean you've grown tired of this girl and want a new one."

Sirius nodded slowly. "I mean, she's really nice, and I think she's good for me, but she's a bit clingy."

"Great." James clapped his hands and laughed. "Padfoot is back on the market, people!"

"Shh! I haven't broken up with her yet, that's why I'm avoiding her!"

"You know maybe you should do it now, so that she has the holidays to get over it?" Remus suggested. Sirius considered this. "Yeah, I guess." He sighed. "Guess I'd better go do that then."

James watched him leave and once more thought why Lily wouldn't go out with him.

"_See, I would not do to her what Sirius is doing to Marlene." _He thought. He wasn't surprised that Sirius was bored of Marlene, he always got bored of girls after a few dates, but he didn't think it fair that Sirius could go out with who he wanted and break their heart, whereas James wasn't able to even go out with the girl he wanted. He sighed and leant his head against the side of the bench, closing his eyes. It was a long journey back to Godric's Hollow, and he needed to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hey, sorry this one took ages, but as I said, I'm trying to make the chapters longer, and also I had writers block :) I thought now would be a good time to thank NoReins94 and nine-orcids for reviewing. You guys are awesome :)_

_Millie xxx

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_

**Chapter 7**

"Hey." Lily said, sitting down next to Alice at the table. They'd seen each other the night before, but it had been late and there wasn't much time to talk.

"Hey." Alice replied, taking a bite of toast. "I'm guessing your Christmas was as Owl filled as mine."

"Which type, revising or letters from Marlene?"

"Well, only you in the entire universe would already be revising, so the second one." Alice smiled.

Lily nodded. "I've got a whole stack of them. I couldn't read most of them, they were so smudged and teary."

"Poor Marlene." Alice sighed.

"I really thought that maybe Black had seen something in her that other guys ignore. Guess he's just as shallow as the rest of them." Lily muttered.

"Do you think she's going to be okay? I mean, where is she now?" Alice said worriedly.

"It's cool, she's with Emily. Later Mary said she'd go study with her in the library." Lily said, smiling sadly.

"Good. She really doesn't need to be alone."

"Don't worry yourself too much, Marlene's pretty tough." Lily smiled.

"Still…" Alice murmured.

"Alice! She'll be okay, I promise!" Lily said exasperatedly.

"If you're sure."

"I am. By the way, that Frank guy is walking over here right now." Lily grinned. Alice's head spun 180 degrees.

"Uh, hey Alice." He stuttered. "Um, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure." Alice said nervously, throwing an excited smile in Lily's direction and following the taller boy. Lily watched as Frank put his hand behind his neck, awkwardly asking Alice something which wasn't hard to guess. She smiled as Alice nodded enthusiastically then returned to their table, sitting down and taking a glug of pumpkin juice.

"Alice…" Lily said, indicating for her friend to elaborate. Alice grinned at her.

"He asked me out!" She blurted. Lily hugged her.

"Oh my God, that's so great!" Lily gushed, genuinely happy for her. Frank seemed really nice and stable, and he and Alice would be great together. "Alice Longbottom." Lily said loudly.

"Shh!" Alice hissed, laughing and hugging herself. "Do _not_ scare him off!"

Lily giggled. "Seriously Alice, you guys will be so great together. However, this means there is one less person to look after Marlene at the next Hogsmeade weekend…"

"But that's two weeks away!" Alice protested. "Surely she'll be okay by then? Do you want me to go and tell Frank that I can't come-"

"Alice, relax! She's going to be fine! I was just kidding." Lily said quickly. Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness. I mean, I love Marlene so much, but I really want this to work with Frank, he's so nice. Is that selfish?"

"Not at all Alice," Lily sighed. "Not at all."

Lily was delighted that Alice seemed to have found someone, but part of her was still upset. She'd come so close to going out with Thomas, only to have it taken away from her. But she wanted to forget about all that now. She turned her mind away from these thoughts to Alice, who was already planning potential outfits, and _really _needed Lily's help.

* * *

"Did you enjoy your Christmas prezzie Moony?" Sirius asked.

"If you mean Muggle 'wolfman' shower gel, yes I found it most amusing." Remus said seriously. "I shall now have the '_spirit of the wolf' _whenever I shower_._"

"You loved it really." Sirius beamed.

"Would it be too much to ask for a book?"

"No, because then we'd be getting you something you actually _wanted._ Now where's the fun in that?"

"I give up." Remus rolled his eyes.

"Well if it makes you feel any better Moony, Padfoot's present from his parents wasn't exactly a bundle of laughs." James pointed out.

"They got you something?" Remus asked confusedly.

"Yes, a lovely howler expressing their eternal hate for me." Sirius smiled sweetly. "It totally disrupted Mrs Potter's Christmas dinner."

"What did it say?"

"The usual- why can't I be more like Regulus, I'm a disgrace to the name of Black, Slytherin rules, blah blah blah."

"Sorry." Remus said sympathetically.

"Nah, wouldn't be Christmas without at least _one _screaming fit with my parents."

The boys laughed until James brought up his hand to silence them.

"Well well, who've we got here." He said in disgust.

Snape stood before him with two other boys standing next to him. One was thin and tall with dirty, mousy brown hair. The other was small and square, his fists automatically clenched, as if waiting for a fight. Snape whipped his wand out, but he wasn't fast enough.

"_Expelliarmus!_" James yelled, and the wand was flicked effortlessly out of Snape's hand. The two other boys lunged forward, but Sirius was way ahead of them, their wands soon joining Severus's on the floor.

"So, hanging with the big boys now, are we Snivellus?" James taunted. A crowd was forming, cheering James and Sirius on. Snape made a sudden movement towards his wand.

"_Locomotor Mortis!_" Sirius shouted, and Severus collapsed onto the floor, his legs bound beneath him.

The tall boy flicked his wand towards Sirius, removing the spell. He obviously wasn't very intelligent, you could almost see the thoughts processing in his mind.

"Let's go Sev." He said, picking Severus off the ground.

"But, Potter, I have to…" Severus said breathlessly.

"What's that Snivelly? You have to 'wipe your nose on me'? Now that's just disgusting." James said, the crowd laughing with his mocking tone.

"We'll deal with them later." The square boy growled menacingly.

"Ooh, Sirius, did you hear that?" James said, in a fake-scared voice. "Snivelly and his pals are going to 'deal with' us!"

"Oh whatever shall we do?" Sirius gushed, pretending to faint.

"How about a quick hanging them up in great hall by their underwear? That ought to do the trick." James grinned. The boys moved quickly then, nearly losing their balance in their rush to run away. Sirius lazily waved his wand, and they tripped over thin air.

"Mind your step." He yelled after them.

* * *

Lily was not watching where she was going. She was late, as she'd caught a Slytherin hexing a younger student, and had dealt with that first, so she was running to get to Herbology. She ran strait into Snape. She muttered her apology, before she realised who it was and smiled at him.

"Oh, sorry Sev." Then she noticed the two boys scowling at her from behind him. They stepped in front of him, their arms crossed.

"You don't talk to him, Mudblood." The taller one spat. Lily blinked, trying not to let the tears show. Snape pushed through them.

"Guys, it's okay." He muttered. "Go on without me, I'll catch up."

"Whatever Severus. You can hang with Mudbloods if you want to."

The boys glared at their friend as they left. As soon as they turned the corner Severus started apologising frantically.

"I am so sorry Lily, I didn't know they were going to act like that, if I'd known…I'm really, really sorry."

"Why didn't you defend me? Who are those people anyway?" Lily said angrily.

"They're called Yaxley and Macnair, and they're alright normally…they just come from a pretty strict background." Snape said quickly.

"Pretty strict? They just called me a _mudblood_!" Lily whispered the word.

"When I say strict, I mean traditional. Anyway, what were you going to say to me before they butted in?" Snape tried to change the subject.

"So by traditional, you mean they believe the only true wizards are pure blood. They hate me for my background" Lily said in disgust.

"No, it's just-"

"Why are you making excuses for them?" Lily said loudly, before bringing her voice down to a low hiss. "With words like that they're just one step away from being just like You Know Who!"

Snape looked shocked. "Lily, you know I'd never hang around with _anyone _who was like him!"

"Really? I'm not sure I even know who you are anymore! I hardly see you because you're off with people who think I'm dirt!" Lily broke down, and a single tear fell down her cheek.

"Lily, please don't cry." Severus begged, reaching for her shoulder. She shrugged him off.

"Don't touch me." She said, her voice cracked. "Look, I don't want you to become like them, and I think if you keep hanging around people like that, then you will."

"Lily, you know I'll never change." Snape said quietly.

"I hope so." Lily whispered. She smiled sadly and turned away.

James came round the corner, but suddenly backtracked and hid behind the wall. Lily was walking away from Snape, and from the way her shoulders were slumped over and the sad manner in which she was walking, James could guess she was upset. Snape, on the other hand, looked a bit angry, guilty and upset. It was pretty obvious that they'd had an argument. A part of James was extremely happy, as maybe this meant Snape could finally be separated from Lily, but most of him was angry at Snape for upsetting Lily yet again. His hand clenched around his wand as he waited for Lily to leave the corridor. He knew if he hexed Snivellus in front of her she'd just make him remove the curse. Why did she always stick up for him?

* * *

James watched Lily turn the corner and got ready to step out when he saw the idiots who seemed to be Severus's 'friends' rejoin him.

"Severus, need we ask why you're hanging out with that Mudblood?" One of them sneered.

"Please don't hurt her." Severus said hastily. "She's kind of important to me." James narrowed his eyes, anger bubbling up inside of him.

"_He does NOT get to think of Lily as that._" He thought furiously.

"I hope you're not suggesting what I think you are." The other boy said darkly.

"Of course not Yaxley." Snape said quickly. It was an obvious lie. He licked his lips and breathed in before speaking. "I mean, she's a Mudblood, isn't she?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL HER?" James roared, stepping out and aiming his wand at Severus. Snape's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything.

"Exactly what she is." Yaxley spat. "A disgusting, dirty Mud-"

"_Stupefy!_" James yelled, hitting Yaxley with the spell.

"_Petrificus Totalis!" _Snape's spell hit James square in the back. He leaned over James's frozen body. "Not so strong now, are you Potter." Snape sneered the last word. He kicked him in the side, then turned to his friends,

"Let's go. Black or some other brainless Potter-worshipper will find him eventually."


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey, just wanted to say thank you to the people reading this story, you make my day :)_

_Millie xxx

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**Chapter 8**

Remus's mouth fell open. "Are you serious? Severus said that about _Lily_?"

James nodded. "Yeah, I know, it's weird."

"Isn't she like his only friend?" Sirius said, confused.

"Apparently not anymore…" James said slowly.

"Are you going to tell her?" Sirius asked.

"No," James shook his head. "I really want to, but I don't think she'd believe me, and also I think it would really upset her."

"I agree with Prongs. I think you're handling this very maturely." Remus said in approval. Sirius laughed.

"Are you serious? You're just going to let this go?"

"For the moment, yeah." James answered. Sirius sighed.

"Okay, it's up to you mate. But this is your chance to remove Snape from Lily's side!" He said exasperatedly.

"Yeah, I guess…" James said thoughtfully. Remus rolled his eyes,

"Good. Now that we've got that little drama sorted," Sirius smirked. "Has anyone seen Marlene around today?"

"Why? I thought you broke up with her?" James asked.

"Yeah! Me too!" Peter piped up.

"I did, but-" Sirius started.

"But he's feeling guilty because he broke up with her for no reason." Remus said from behind his transfiguration text book.

"No, Moony. There was at least _one _reason. I just haven't figured out what it is yet." He grinned. "But he's right, she's pretty upset. I mean who wouldn't be, _look _at me."

"Padfoot…" Remus said in a warning tone.

"But yeah. She doesn't get why I broke up with her." Sirius shrugged. "I guess she'll get over it eventually."

"Probably." James turned to Remus. "Moony, what you studying for? We don't have Transfiguration until Thursday?" Remus looked up.

"You do realise that we start our OWLs in two weeks?" He said, as if talking to an idiot.

"Ages." Sirius smiled.

"You're forgetting that this weekend is a full moon." Remus had lowered his voice. "And, you know."

James nodded. "Yeah, I still think we'll be okay Moony. Specially with my transfiguration skills." He flexed his arm and laughed.

"You'll be fine, you're all so clever! I'll do terribly." Peter said glumly.

"Don't worry your pretty little head Wormy." Sirius said, ruffling Peter's hair. James noticed Lily come into the room, his hand instantly jumping to his hair.

"Just tell her what Snape said!" Sirius whispered.

"She won't believe me!" James replied under his breath.

"Do you want to go out with her or not?"

"Well, yeah, of course I do, more than anything, but-"

"But what?" Sirius hissed. "If you tell her this then you'll get rid of Snape, and he must be the reason she won't go out with you!" James had to admit that did sound probable.

"Well…"

"James! Sirius does not know what he's talking about!" Remus said hurriedly.

"Who here is best with girls?" Sirius raised his hand at this time. "So I think I probably know best. As apposed to bachelor boy over here." He pointed to Remus with his thumb.

"Coming from you, who just broke up with a girl because he was bored."

Sirius shrugged. "Still better than you mate."

"Look, James. You want Lily to respect you, right? The best thing to do is to tell Dumbledore." Remus said seriously.

"I am not going to tell on Snape to Dumbledore." James snorted.

"Well what are you going to do then?" Sirius asked.

"I guess I'll keep my mouth shut, unless I feel that I should at any point." James half-smiled, running a hand through his hair. There was silence for a few seconds.

"So, you really think she'll go out with me if she isn't friends with Snivelly?" James asked Sirius hopefully. Sirius nodded with enthusiasm.

"Uh huh, definitely. I mean, I can't see why else she isn't going out with you."

James grinned. "See you in a minute."

"Good one Prongs." Sirius hit him playfully on the shoulder as he got up, receiving a scathing look from Remus.

* * *

"What is it Potter?" Lily spat as he approached her and her friends.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked, and then adding, "By the way, you look gorgeous today." Along with a smirk and a wink that Lily ignored.

"Surprisingly, no, you can't." Lily retorted. "Go away."

"Seriously, Lily." James looked at her from beneath his glasses. "It's about Sniv-Severus."

That got Lily's attention. As much as she hated being within ten feet on James, she wanted to know why he, of all people, wanted to discuss Severus with her.

"Um, okay." She said unsurely. He lead her over to a corner of the room, them smiled into her face.

"You know me and you would be really great-" He began, getting distracted.

"For goodness sake," Lily muttered angrily, turning away. He caught her arm.

"Wait! Sorry. This is about Snape, I promise." He said apologetically.

Lily sighed and crossed her arms.

"Okay," He whispered. "Look, I wasn't sure whether or not to tell you this, but the other day I saw you and Snivellus having an argument, and afterwards he was talking to his friends, and…" James drifted off when he saw Lily's back stiffen.

"What? What did he say?"

"Um, he called you a, you know, a…" He trailed off again. "He insulted your blood." He breathed out, looking at her carefully. She didn't say anything for a few seconds. He'd half expected her to blow up at him, but when she spoke it was in a low, venomous tone.

"I never thought you'd actually stoop this low." She said slowly, the pure hatred in her eyes glinting at James.

"Lily I'm not lying!" James said, his voice rising in pitch and volume. She ignored him.

"He would- could never say anything like that about me! He's my best friend!" She shouted, and it was obvious she was more reassuring herself than anyone else.

"Lily, he said it I swear!"

"You disgust me." Lily said, glaring at James in almost disbelief. She walked away, thoughts flooding her head.

"_Would he say that?_" She thought uncontrollably. "_He's been hanging around with those people, those people who believe that I am a, a mudblood. But he's my best friend! He's not going to suddenly hate me…" _Lily shook her head. Part of her wanted to believe that James had misunderstood, that it was those two slimy idiots Severus hung around, but she knew that wasn't true. James had to be lying. She wasn't going to start trusting _him _over her best friend.

* * *

"You were right." James said to Remus, glaring at Sirius. "Guess Romeo over here's ideas are crap after all."

"Hey!" Sirius said defensively. "it's my fault you're terrible with women."

"Not women in general," Remus pointed out. "Just Lily."

"Thanks." James muttered sarcastically. "I just don't get why she doesn't like me." He said, trying to make the question sound like he didn't care what the answer was.

"I wouldn't worry about it, mate." Sirius shrugged. "She'll come round eventually, just don't give up."

"Yeah." James nodded determinedly. "Yeah."

"James, have you even started revising for Transfiguration?" Remus said, changing the subject.

"Why?"

"Because it's on Tuesday," he said, bored.

"It'll be a walk in the park." James grinned arrogantly. "Unless Minnie hasn't been teaching us the History of Magic syllabus I should get an O."

"You definitely will James!" Peter squeaked, looking at James in adoration.

Remus looked at James. "Aren't you even going to look at your textbook?"

"Aw, leave me alone Moony, I'm tired." James yawned and stretched his arms out.

"Sirius?" Remus turned to his other friend, who was lazily making the mugs on the coffee table spin around with his wand.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to revise either."

"Great." Remus sighed, rolling his eyes.

* * *

"Severus," Lily looked at Severus on the desk opposite her. It was Potions, and Lily and Severus had worked together nearly every lesson since they'd come to the school. This lesson, however, had resulted in Severus working with Yaxley. Lily didn't understand. Did this mean that she wasn't friends with Severus anymore? She did not want to prove Potter right, and wasn't going to have a fight with her best friend over something as childish as who was her partner in Potions.

"Yeah," he said, not looking up. He wasn't interested at all.

"Urm," Lily said, faltering a little. "Can I talk to you after the lesson?"

He looked at her for a second, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess." That was it. He turned back to his work silently, directing no attention to Lily, apart from the occasional glance when she and Yaxley were turned away. Alice looked at Lily, who was trying not to look upset or confused, but failing.

"Lily, why is he acting like such an idiot?" Alice said, trying to insult Snape through a question. She'd never liked him, but had always been polite and respected him for Lily's sake.

"I, I don't know." Lily said, her voice quivering.

The lesson bell went and Lily picked up her books.

"I'm going to talk to him now." She forced a watery smile towards Alice. "I'll see you later."

"Okay." Alice hugged her friend and left.

"Lily," Snape said coldly. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Yaxley had gone. He tried to hide it, but his voice suddenly became more pleasant, more like the old Severus. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"What's going on?" Lily blurted out. She'd meant to be more subtle than that. "Why are you acting like I don't exist?"

"I- I'm not." Severus stuttered. "I mean, what are you talking about?"

"You ignored me for the whole of that lesson!"

"Well, I just, you know, want to get to know some new people. Not that there's anything wrong with you," He said quickly. "It's just that you've been my only friend for so long, and when you're not around I'm kind of lonely. Macnair and Yaxley, they like me."

"They insulted me in the worst way possible." Lily said sadly. "And you call them your friends?"

"Please just give them a chance, Lily."

"I can't do that."

"Are you making me choose?" Snape said slowly.

Lily looked up at him. "Do you want to lose me?"

Snape shook his head. "You know I'll always choose you, Lily."

She beamed at him giving him a quick hug.

"Can I just ask you one thing?"

He nodded.

"James Potter came up to me, and well, he said something that I knew must be a lie." Lily looked at Snape, seeing his features harden and his lips quiver. She assumed it was at the mention of James's name. "He, well he said you insulted my blood. I know it's not true, but I thought I should tell you anyway. It- it's not true, is it?"

"Of course not Lily." Snape said hastily. "I could never do that to you."


	9. Chapter 9

_Sorry, I know this took ages, but I was in Paris :) it was AMAZING. Thank you for reading,_

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 9**

Lily collapsed on her bed, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't believe what had just happened, couldn't acknowledge it. Severus had called her _that_, something he'd promised he would never do. He'd humiliated her, insulting her in front of the massive crowd that always formed whenever James was 'performing'. She'd defended him, she'd made Potter stop whatever disgusting new spell he was trying out this time, and then he'd just…betrayed her. The worst part was that she should of seen it coming. Lily felt like kicking herself there were so many signs. Potters 'story' was now inevitably the truth, but to be honest Lily had known that all along, underneath Severus's lie that she'd convinced herself was true. She'd been able to tell from a mile off what his friends were like, but she'd never anticipating him ever actually becoming like them. Another thing she couldn't stand was that Potter was _right._ He'd told her that this was coming, he'd warned her, and she hadn't believed him. He'd never liked that she and Severus were joined at the hip, and now they were finally separated he was likely to be as smug as ever. Lily wailed miserably and buried her face into her pillow.

"Lily?" A small voice called from across the room. "Lily, are you okay?"

Another voice joined this one. "Yeah, we're all going to go and study in the library, if you're up for it."

Lily shook her head. They'd been giving her space since the 'incident', and this was exactly what Lily wanted, at least for now. She heard the first voice arguing with the second in whispered tones at the doorway.

"But she's upset! Shouldn't we go and comfort her?" Lily now recognised this to be Alice.

"She does not want us poking our noses in! She's a pretty private person normally anyway, and Snape is, well, was her best friend!" This was Mary, and Lily was pleased for once of her no-fuss personality.

"Are you sure?" Alice said worriedly.

"Come on." Mary sighed, pulling Alice down the corridor.

Lily pulled herself gingerly off the bed and made her way towards the chest of drawers pushed against the wall. She opened the bottom drawer and picked up her photo album. Her parents had bought it for her as a going away present on her first day of Hogwarts. Lily ran her finger over the silver front, lingering on the bold letters: _memories. _She turned to the first page, seeing a still picture of her, Petunia, and their mother and father. Petunia's face was sour, and Lily doubted sadly that this was one of her favourite days. She hated how jealously had turned to resentment with her sister, desperately wanting to have her friendship with her back. She flipped over to the next page, and the tears started trickling down her cheeks freely again, as she saw First-Year Lily and Severus smiling at her in the Hogwarts Express.

"Goodbye." She whispered, stroking the frame gently.

* * *

Lily was wrong in two ways. She was wrong about Snape, and she was wrong about James being smug. He was miserable. He'd never wanted to make Lily upset, and when he'd defended her she'd accused him of being as bad as Snape. He didn't understand any of it.

"Why do you think she hates me so much?" James whined, throwing the snitch up into the air. Remus pretended not to hear. "Hello? Moony?"

"Yes?"

"You're always saying you probably know Evans the best…"

"Well, not really, we're just both prefects and have to do patrols together."

"Whatever." James said quickly. "Why does Evans hate me?" He repeated the question.

"You know you won't like my answer, whatever I say." Remus looked pointedly at James.

"Just say it!" James snapped.

"Fine. I think maybe she thinks you're a little immature and irritating sometimes." Remus chose his words carefully.

James opened his mouth to protest. "But-"

"Prongs, can we _please _stop talking about Evans?" Sirius said lazily. "It's getting so boring."

James frowned at him, but gave in.

" I guess. I can't believe that in a week it'll be the summer." He sighed. "I mean, this year has gone so quickly."

"Easy for you to say." Remus muttered, smiling.

"And the OWLs aren't exactly flying by." Peter put in worriedly.

"As long as that rodent-sized brain hasn't let you down Wormtail, you will have done fine," Sirius laughed.

"So what are you going to do, I mean, have you decided?" Remus asked James.

"I dunno," he said, shrugging. "I guess becoming an Auror would be pretty cool. I'd like to work for the Order, you know, as soon as we leave school."

"Yeah, I can see that happening." Sirius nodded in agreement.

"What? Fighting-" Peter gulped. "You-Know-Who?"

"Yeah." James said firmly.

"Um, cool." Peter smiled.

* * *

Lily squeezed her trunk shut, tucking her robe in at the side. Alice smiled from the bed opposite hers.

"Weird, isn't it, that we've already got through fifth year?"

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." She grinned. "I'm pretty glad it's over though." She was trying to get over the whole Snape-thing, and had been struggling with it all week. It was going to be even harder if she bumped into him at home, which was why she was spending a reasonable chunk of the summer at Alice's.

"I'm glad OWLs are over." Alice sighed. "Who knows what I got in Ancient Runes."

"You'll have done fine." Lily reassured her. "Have you decided what you're going to do after we leave Hogwarts?"

"I'm not quite sure." Alice frowned. "But I'm pretty interested in becoming an Auror. That's what Frank's definitely doing."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Is he the only reason you'll be doing it?"

"No!" Alice laughed. "But I'll admit it's a considerable factor. No, seriously, my dad was an Auror, and it seems like a really good thing to do."

Lily nodded, levitating her trunk off the bed.

"I can't wait until I can come to your house." Lily sighed. "Petunia's bringing back her new boyfriend for the summer."

Alice pulled a face. "Put an itching spell in his underpants."

"Yes, I'm sure that will go down brilliantly with the Ministry." Lily laughed.

"Just so you know, Frank will be over quite a lot, and so will Mary. They only live in the next village."

"That's fine. I'll distract Mary while you and Frank snog in the corner."

Alice hit Lily with her pillow.

"C'mon," she looked down at her watch. "We're going to miss the train."

Lily followed her down the steep staircases until they reached the entrance hall. Emily was saying a very tearful goodbye to her new boyfriend, Angus Fogg, whilst Elizabeth, Marlene and Mary watched awkwardly.

"Hey." Alice greeted their other friends. "Are Emily and Angus attempting to drown one another?"

Lily laughed, then stopped suddenly. Alice noticed.

"Lily? Are you o-"

Snape was standing in the corridor alone, his trunk tipped over backwards.

"Hey, Lily," he said shakily. "Um, can I talk to you?"

Alice's eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" She demanded. "Of course she doesn't want to talk to you! You can't do everything you've done to her, then just expect her to forgive you in an instant!"

"Lily, please." Snape begged. Lily just shook her head, a single tear sliding down her cheek.

"No." She said, turning around.

"Please just let me explain!"

"Explain what?" She whirled around. "How you insulted me in the most disgusting way possible, how you humiliated me in front of everyone I know, how you betrayed me for those monsters you call friends?"

"Lily it's not like that!"

"Oh really." She sneered. "What is it like then?"

"You and me, we're just different. We've changed. We can still be friends."

"No, Severus, we can't. _You've_ changed. And we can't be friends." She turned away and started to walk towards the entrance, in front of her friends.

"Is this how it's going to end then?" He called after her. "And after everything I've done!"

She looked at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"How kind I've been to you." Snape shouted. "Considering you're a Mud-"

"That's enough." Angus, who had dislodged himself from Emily, took hold of Snape's arm. "Get out."

He shrugged the taller boy off.

"Watch yourself Fogg." He stomped off down the corridor, dragging his trunk with him.

"That was really brave, Angie." Emily whispered.

"Yeah." Lily smiled weakly at the boy, whom she didn't actually know very well. "Thanks."

Alice took her shoulders and hugged her.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really." Lily muttered. "I just want to get out of here. Suddenly Petunia and her new man don't sound so bad after all."

Alice laughed a little, and led her friend to the carriages taking them down to Hogsmeade station.

* * *

"So what's happening this summer, Prongsie?" Sirius smirked from across the compartment.

"Quidditch, food, more Quidditch." James answered, looking at the ceiling.

"Excellent." Sirius said, rubbing his hands together.

"So are you not going home at all this summer Padfoot?" Remus asked.

"Nope. I've quite literally flown the nest." Sirius grinned. "I mean, half my crap's still there, unless my dear mother's had a celebrationary bonfire."

"Wouldn't put it past her." James laughed. "Will you be okay Moony, without us, I mean."

"James, I managed for the first nine years before I met you, I think I can manage." Remus said seriously.

"Yeah, give the guy some slack." Sirius laughed. "Where's that trolley woman. I'm starving."

"I'm sure she'll be _more _than happy to serve you if you go around calling her 'trolley woman'," James said sarcastically.

"Whatever." Sirius grinned. "You're just grumpy because Evans hates you."

"She doesn't _hate_ me, she is just…going through a tough time. I'm pretty sure she's close to breaking on the whole going out with me thing." James said confidently.

Remus snorted, but covered it up with a cough.

"Okay mate, whatever you say. By the way, d'you think I should ask that Emily girl out. She's really fit."

"She's already going out with Angus Fogg." Remus answered, having opened a book already.

"Damn. Okay, what about her best friend, Elizabeth something."

"I can see you've really thought this through." Remus answered sarcastically.

"Shut up. Prongs?" Sirius turned to his best friend.

"I dunno mate. Might be a bad idea after Marlene. She may just slaughter you and Elizabeth in one go."

Sirius shrugged. "Worth it."


	10. Chapter 10

_Okay, I know this chapter is RIDICULOUSLY short, but I tried to make it longer and it was really crap, so I decided to just stop. The next one will be extra long! :) I'd also like to thank Orange-Coyote, i love JPLE and FRED DDD, greasergirl0003 and Orion'96, as well as nine-orcids and NoReins94 from before. Thank you so much for reviewing, you make me smile! :D_

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 10**

"So, sixth year, huh?" Alice smiled.

"Doesn't feel much different to be honest, Al." Elizabeth sighed. "I miss the holidays already."

"I don't." Lily muttered.

"Was it that bad?" Emily asked sympathetically.

"Bad is an understatement." Lily said heavily. "With the exception of staying at Alice's, it was terrible."

"Petunia?" Marlene asked, looking up from her nails.

"Yeah, but also a never ending load of letters from Severus, and Petunia's new boyfriend's worse than her. He's called Vernon, and saying that he slightly resembled a walrus whose face's been kicked in would be extremely kind."

"Not much of a looker then." Marlene smirked.

"No, definitely not. That's not the worse though. He hates me almost as much as she does."

"Why? He hardly knows you!" Mary asked.

"Yeah, but she's told him her version of what I am." Lily said sadly.

"Is she even allowed to do that?" Alice frowned.

"Dunno. My parents were pretty angry, but there's nothing they can do. She has _him _now. He proposed last week."

"Urgh. That's disgusting." Marlene spat.

"I know. I probably won't be invited to the wedding though, so at least I won't have to watch." Lily pulled a face.

"Hey, at least you got no less than an EE in _any _your OWLs Lily." Alice said brightly.

"Yeah, but you can't talk Alice. The lowest you got was an A in Arithmancy." Marlene pointed out.

"D'you think I'll still be able to become an Auror?" Alice asked worriedly.

"Yeah, you'll be fine. So you've decided that's what you're definitely going to do then?" Lily inquired.

"I think so. What about you Marlene?"

She shrugged. "Journalism, maybe. Haven't decided."

"Marlene Prewett, of the Daily Prophet…" Alice said out loud. Marlene shoved her playfully.

"By the way, is it still on with Frank?" She changed the subject.

Alice nodded. "Yeah. I can't believe he's leaving at the end of this year though."

"I think you guys will probably stay together." Marlene said confidently. "Emily? You and Fogg still on?"

"Yeah." Emily answered defensively. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Okay, okay. Calm down." She changed her tone. "Does anyone know if, you know, if Sirius is seeing anyone?"

"Mar…" Alice started.

"I'm just curious!"

"It's been over sixth months!" Alice said seriously. "You've got to get over him!"

A quarrel followed, but Lily wasn't listening. She, to be honest, really didn't care about Marlene and Sirius. Yes, she wished her friend could find someone she was happy with, but the whole thing was so _trivial._

"I think I'm going to go and get some air." Lily said, getting up.

* * *

"You got all Os and EEs in everything?" Peter asked again, gob smacked.

"Yep." James smirked. "So much for Moony's 'studying'."

"You could of got all Os if you had." Remus said pointedly.

"Whatever. They were easy."

"I didn't think so…" Peter said miserably.

"Okay Wormy. The worst you got was a T in…what was it?" Sirius asked.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Just don't bank on doing anything outside of Muggle Relations." He laughed.

Peter moaned.

"Work hard these two years Wormtail, and you should be okay." Remus said kindly.

"I'm bored." Sirius grumbled.

"So Padfoot. Any ideas on what we're going to treat Snivellus to first?" James yawned.

Remus rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.

"A little foetidus curse, maybe? Or a nasimus charm. Not that he needs it." Sirius snorted.

"Perfect." James grinned.

"Are we gonna find him now, or wait?"

"Later."

"Because no one's around?" Remus put in.

"C'mon Moony." James laughed. "What's the point in performing, if there's no audience to see it?"

"You know, Lily would take you more seriously if you didn't-"

"I told you before the summer." James cut in. "She's going to go out with me pretty soon, I'm sure." He grinned smugly.

"If you're sure…" Remus sighed.

James thought he was sure, but knew that Lily wasn't just going to change her mind that quickly. He just didn't know why, and it upset him.

"Back in a second." He muttered, getting up off the seat, leaving before anyone asked what he was doing.

He leant on a railing next to a window, letting out a sigh. He reached over and opened the glass a crack, breathing in the cool, fresh air. He turned around to look at the open carriage. Most of the seats were occupied, but it was the one in front of him that he was interested in. His stomach flipped as he saw Lily's red hair glinting in the sunlight.

"Hey Evans." He said smoothly, running a free hand through his already messed up hair and leaning on the back of her seat. She turned, but made a face and immediately faced the other way.

"Go away." She said through gritted teeth.

"Aw, Evans. Don't be like that." He grinned.

She didn't reply.

"Evans, I was thinking, since you and Snivelly aren't friends anymore, and that there's a Hogsmeade weekend three weeks from now, you would consider going out with me?" He said, trying to cover up a hopeful tone.

"Hmm…let me think about it." Lily said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "No."

"Just one date. C'mon Evans, do this one thing for me." James said quickly.

"Potter, I'm never, in a million years, going to do anything for you. Especially not go out with you. You're a disgusting, pig-headed idiot." She said angrily, pulling herself up of the seat and marching down the corridor.

James shrugged at the several faces now watching him warily, and turned back towards the compartment. A nervous second year crashed into him as he moved.

"_Levicorpus._" He muttered the spell he's tortured off Snape last year. The boy suddenly found himself hung from the ceiling by his ankle, and began yelping and twisting crazily. James muttered the counter-curse as his 'audience' laughed. The boy fell to the floor and ran off. James felt bad, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it now.

"Hey," he went back into his compartment.

"What was that all about mate?" Sirius asked confusedly.

"Dunno." James shrugged. "Just needed some air."


	11. Chapter 11

_So, as promised, here is a really really long chapter (for me anyway). Before I started this I promised myself I wouldn't do any Sirius/OC stuff, but I have anyway as a Christmas present for all you Sirius lovers. Also, this will be my last chapter before Christmas, so happy holidays :)_

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 11**

"Okay, do I, or do I not, ask Elizabeth out?" Sirius looked around him.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!"

Sirius sighed. " Okay, Peter, why?"

"Yes, because, you obviously _want _to go out with her, and she will _definitely _want to go out with you, I mean, you're one of the most popular and handsome boys in the year…" he stopped, hoping for words of gratitude.

"Now you're worrying me Wormy." Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Okay, Moony. Why so down?" He smirked.

"I don't know why you're asking, as you're obviously going to ask her out, regardless of what I say. Yes she's pretty, and yes, she'll go out with you, but you'll ruin her and Marlene's friendship and get hated by the whole group for breaking them up." Remus paused. "I mean, do you like her that much?"

Sirius considered this for a second. "Valid point, but she'd hot and I don't care about her friends if it means I get to snog her." He smiled sweetly. "Prongsie?"

"If you want to go out with her, then I don't see why Marlene should get in the way. And, as a selfish reason, it gives me more opportunities to see and talk to Evans." James grinned. "Everybody wins."

"Except Marlene." Remus muttered.

"Moony, if you're worried she's going to feel all lonely, then just ask her out!" Sirius said loudly.

"Shh!" Remus hissed. "Why would I do that? I don't even fancy her!"

"Alright, alright! Keep your fur on." Sirius winked at this. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Talking of fur, when's it full moon?" James asked seriously.

"Two weeks." Remus and Sirius answered together.

The portrait hole opened and Lily and her friends entered the common room. James rose from his seat, but Lily took one look at him and exited to the Girls dormitory.

"Padfoot!" He whispered, then indicated to where Elizabeth was talking to one of her friends.

Sirius peered round James, then grinned widely and jogged over to where she was standing.

"Hey." He said simply. She looked shocked and a little flattered.

"Oh, um, hi Sirius." She smiled.

He pretended to be lost, looking into her face. It was one of his 'tricks', as James liked to call them.

"Can I talk to you for a second? It's about our Muggle Studies homework."

"Lame excuse." Remus said under his breath.

"It's working though…" James watched the friend wave, unsuspicious, and return to her friends. Marlene looked worried, but her friend assured her exactly what Sirius had said. James switched his glace to where Elizabeth was standing, awkwardly, while Sirius leaned against a banister. She looked a little disappointed about the whole homework thing. He saw Sirius lean over and whisper something in her ear. James's eyes flew to Marlene, and saw she'd seen the not-so-subtle indication of what Sirius wanted.

"Crap." James muttered.

Marlene's face looked angry, but controlled. Her nostrils flared and she frowned for a second, before composing herself and giving a forced smile. James looked back at Sirius, and saw Elizabeth smiling and nodding at his friend. Sirius grinned and touched her gently on the shoulder, before returning to the group. He gave a thumbs up to James.

He high fived Peter. "Hogsmeade, three broomsticks, three O'clock this Saturday."

"Padfoot, you should have seen Marlene's face." Remus said quietly. "She's furious."

"She'll get over it."

"If you say so." Remus answered. "But this isn't going to end well."

* * *

"Lily? Are you okay?" Elizabeth called from across the room. Lily looked up from her book, which she was reading on her bed.

"Yeah." She sighed. "I just didn't fancy any of Potter's stupid comments."

"You know, I think he really loves you." Elizabeth said carefully.

Lily snorted. "Yeah right. Potter just wants what he can't have, simple as that."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yeah. He's never been denied anything before, and he can't handle it. Anyway, I don't want to talk about it, he's an idiot." Lily sat up and looked at Elizabeth, who seemed nervous. "What's going on?"

"I've done something really bad." Elizabeth bit her lip.

"What? Lizzy, you can tell me."

"Sirius asked me out." She blurted. Lily looked at her in disbelief.

"You, you didn't say yes?"

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and nodded.

"But what about Marlene?" Lily asked.

"I don't know!" Elizabeth said shrilly. "He just asked me, and you know I've always liked him! I was pretty cut up when he asked her out last year, so when he suggested taking me to Hogsmeade…it just sort of slipped out." A tear started to slide down Elizabeth's cheek.

"Have you told her?" Lily asked quietly.

"No!" Elizabeth answered suddenly. "And you can't tell her. Not yet. Please can we keep this between us, just for now."

"I can't lie!"

"Please Lily, please." Elizabeth begged. "I'll do anything, please."She looked at Lily for a minute, the silent tension filling the room.

"Fine!" Lily spat. "But you seriously owe me. You know I hate lying, especially to Marlene and the others."

Elizabeth ran over and hugged her friend. "Thank you, thank you so much."

"Thank her for what?"

Lily and Elizabeth's heads turned in sync to see Marlene standing in the doorway.

"Urm, Lizzy was thanking me for…offering to write her History of Magic paper for her." Lily said, blinking rapidly.

"Yes." Elizabeth's acting skills were not brilliant. "Because…um…well, Lily's always known more about dwarf colonies than the rest of us, hasn't she?" She laughed mechanically, which Lily joined her on.

"Okay…" Marlene raised her eyebrows. "Um, Elizabeth, I don't want this to sound totally paranoid, but what was Sirius after a minute ago?"

Elizabeth gave her a fake smile. "Oh nothing, just wanted help with his Muggle Studies homework."

"Then why was he leaning over you, and stuff." Marlene tried to make the question sound casual.

"You know better than me Marlene." Elizabeth answered. "He can't do anything without flirting."

Marlene frowned.

"But there's nothing romantic there _of course_! He was only doing it to get me to give him the answers for our homework." Elizabeth said quickly.

"Oh, okay." Marlene was satisfied with this answer. "Yeah, that seems like the only rational answer."

Lizzy's eyes narrowed at this, but she said nothing.

"Yeah, the only rational answer." She said though tight lips. "It is Sirius after all."

* * *

"Are you meeting her there Padfoot?" Peter asked as they walked towards the small village.

"Yep."

"Nervous?" James smirked.

"Err…yes, Prongs." Sirius said sarcastically. "Of _course _I, Sirius Black, am nervous."

"It's possible." James shrugged. "I mean, I think you're losing your looks with age…"

He received a shove. "Shut up. She still wants to keep this whole thing a secret, it's so childish."

"Childish?" Remus snorted. "You're calling someone else childish?"

"What's wrong with that?" Sirius laughed. "I'm _very _mature."

"I didn't say you weren't." Remus smiled.

"I still don't get why Lily didn't want to come with me." James whined.

"Hmm. Tricky one." Sirius pretended to think about it. "I'd say…she doesn't _like _you."

James frowned. He did like Hogsmeade, but it always just reminded him that he wasn't with the person her wanted to be with.

"Anyway, I've got to go and meet my date!" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

"Go get her tiger." James winked, laughing. Remus rolled his eyes.

"So…Zonko's?" Remus smiled weakly.

"You okay Moony? You're looking a little peaky." James grinned. "Only one week, huh?"

"Don't remind me. Come on, lets go get those Dungbombs you wanted. Who knows what you're going to do with them."

* * *

"Okay, is this disguise good enough?" Elizabeth looked in the mirror. Lily laughed.

"Are you serious? Did you charm your hair dark?"

Elizabeth's usual strawberry-blond curls had been bewitched into a ebony shade, contrasting her pink, freckled skin tone. Her roots were tinged green.

"I know, it looks terrible! But it's the only charm I can do and undo this quickly. I tried to make it brown, but it won't work!"

"It wouldn't be that bad, if it wasn't so…"

"Green?"

"Well, yeah." Lily smiled sympathetically. "Oh well, you look fine. Put the glasses on."

Elizabeth slid on some dark shades.

"Name's Carter. Elizabeth Carter." She smirked, sliding the sunglasses down her nose.

"Lily? Elizabeth? Where are you? We have to go!" Mary called up the stairs.

"Coming!" Lily shouted back. "Quick! Turn it back!"

"_Setabo,_" She muttered. Lily watched as invisible dye spread itself through Elizabeth's hair, changing it back to the original colour. "That's better." Elizabeth smiled at herself in the mirror.

"_This is never going to work…" _Thought Lily, grabbing her coat from the side.

"Guys!" Mary's voice rang around the room. "Come on!"

They ran down the stairs. Marlene looked at Elizabeth, who was wrapped up in a knee length coat.

"What's with the coat?" She said confusedly.

"Oh, nothing." Elizabeth said brightly. "It's just cold out at the moment."

As they walked, Lily couldn't help but glance over at her friend. She was nervous, and kept looking over at Marlene to check she wasn't suspicious. Alice didn't miss it, and tipped the contents of her bag onto the floor.

"Oh no! All my things!" She said loudly. "Don't worry guys, Lily here will help me pick them up."

Lily leaned down to help her put the items back into the bag, trying not to make eye contact. Alice looked in front to check the others were walking out of earshot, then took hold of Lily's arm.

"Lily Evans, you tell me what is going on RIGHT NOW, or I'm going to walk up to Lizzy and ask her what's going on in front of everyone, especially Marlene!"

Lily looked worried at this.

"Yeah, Lily. I'm not blind! I can see that this is something to do with her." She paused. "Tell me!"

"Okay!" Lily hissed. "But you can not tell Elizabeth I told you, do you understand?"

Alice nodded enthusiastically.

"Sirius asked Lizzy out."

"WHAT?" Alice shouted. Lily made a face at her.

"Shh!"

"Sorry. Are you serious? Did she say yes?" Alice asked.

Lily nodded. "She's going on a date with him now."

"I knew she wasn't going to Madame Puddifoot's with some guy called 'Vincent Oublè'. I mean, I was sure I'd never heard of him…" She trailed off.

"Alice, it doesn't matter. The one thing that does matter, is that Marlene doesn't find out! She'll go crazy!"

"Okay, secret safe with me. What's the plan?"

"Elizabeth is meeting him in the Three Broomsticks in five minutes. Our job is to keep Marlene as far away from the Three Broomsticks until twelve, where we will all regroup outside Honeydukes, as that is when their first date ends." Lily sighed.

"They have a deadline for their first date?" Alice said sadly.

"Oh yeah. If you ask me, Elizabeth seems to have him wrapped around her little finger. She doesn't realise it though. Come on, they'll be worried about where we are."

* * *

James held a bag of new Dungbombs in his hand. Remus looked at them warily.

"Don't sweat it Moony, they're not for now." He put them in his pocket, pulling something else out of the other. "This, however, is."

Remus backed away. "No way. We are not spying on Padfoot's date with that thing."

"Yes way. Look, we're just out of the village here. We can slip the cloak over our heads, go back into the village and not be seen. It's the perfect plan."

"I'm not worried about being seen!" Remus said loudly. "It's spying on Sirius's first date with someone!"

"Think about it this way, would Sirius do the same for you? Would he say 'Oh no Prongs! I am going to do the good thing, and _not _watch Moony's date with a troll.'" James imitated Sirius's husky voice. "No he would not! So are you in?"

"I cannot _believe _I'm doing this." Remus sighed a few minutes later, when he, Peter and James were all squashed underneath the cloak. "You do realise that you alone are six feet tall! Everyone will be able to see our feet!"

"Nah, not unless there are any dwarfs around. It's really busy." James laughed. "Okay, there's the Three Broomsticks. Let's go." He suddenly surged forward, nearly causing Peter to fall over.

"Sorry Wormtail." James muttered, walking more slowly. They waited near the door until a group of people went in, following behind. James slid the cloak off as soon as they were inside.

"He's over there!" Peter squealed.

"Shh! We don't _want _him to know that." James spoke as if talking to a child. "Back under the cloak."

They walked over to where Sirius and a dark haired girl were sitting _very _close.

"Who is that?" James whispered. They couldn't be heard in the loud atmosphere of the pub.

"It's Elizabeth!" Remus hissed in response. He moved slightly to let someone past before they hit him. "She's wearing a disguise."

* * *

Lily and Alice ran to where they saw Mary standing next to a lamppost.

"There you are! I've been waiting for you. They've already gone in!" Mary smiled.

"Gone in where?" Lily frowned.

"The Three Broomsticks, where else do we go for a drink? Elizabeth went off to her date and we waited for you a minute, but everyone got cold. We flipped a coin on who had to wait."

"What? They've gone into the _Three Broomsticks?_" Lily asked shrilly.

"Yes…why are you being so weird?" Mary looked worried.

"Sorry, um, I'm not feeling so good. Err…let's just go get a drink." Lily gave Mary a quick smile, and a worried smile to Alice.

"What are we going to do?" Her friend hissed to her.

"I guess just go with it. She's wearing a disguise." Lily shrugged. "Come on."

As soon as they entered the warm, buzzing pub Mary spotted Marlene and Emily sitting in a booth in the corner. From the fact that she was still smiling, Lily guessed that Marlene hadn't seen Sirius and his date yet. Lily looked around for Sirius and Elizabeth, and saw they were positioned purposely out of Marlene's view. From their table around the corner, they couldn't be seen. Lily breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey guys." She approached her friends, sitting down.

"Finally!" Emily smiled. "Where were you guys?"

"We got held up." Lily said through a forced smile.

"Anyway," Emily said quickly. "What are we drinking?"

"Five Butterbeers." Alice grinned.

"Four. I'll have Pumpkin juice." Marlene looked up. "What? I'm on a diet."

Alice rolled her eyes.

"So are you meeting up with Frank later?" Lily tried to keep the chat going.

"Yeah, we're just going to walk around town together, go to shops…" Alice smiled dreamily.

"Urgh." Marlene made a noise. "I'm going to the toilet."

"Oh." Lily looked around. "I'll come with you."

"I wonder if I'll see Sirius today." Marlene began putting lip gloss on in the mirror.

"Do you ever think, maybe you should go for someone else?" Lily suggested.

"No." Marlene said simply. "What we had was amazing, I'm not just going to let that go."

"Oh."

"Let's go." Marlene had finished her beauty touch up. Lily tried to get to the door first, so as to lead her away from possible Sirius-Spotting points and back to their table, but she was too late. Marlene walked out of the lavatory door, which was the exact opposite side of the room from where Sirius and Elizabeth were sitting.

"_Crap._" Lily thought.

"Who, who is Sirius with?" Marlene stuttered, shaking slightly.

"Mar…" Lily said slowly.

"No, Lily." Marlene spat. "I want to know." She stomped over to where they were sitting, Lily following and trying to stop her.

"Marlene, don't!" Lily called desperately.

"Who is this?" Marlene demanded, looking at Sirius, but pointing at Elizabeth.

"What's it to you?" Sirius said coolly.

"Who are you?" She directed this towards Elizabeth, so said nothing.

"Marlene, let's go, come on…" Lily tried to lead her away, but she wrenched herself free.

"No! I have to know who she is!" With this Marlene leaned over and whipped the glasses off of Elizabeth's face. She looked into her face, her very familiar face.

"_Elizabeth?" _She said incredulously. Elizabeth got up. The whole pub was in silence, watching the scene avidly.

"Thank you, Marlene. Thanks a lot." She put on her coat and stormed out of the pub.


	12. Chapter 12

_Hey there, sorry this took a truly ridiculous amount of time to get out, but it's finally done! I received a very helpful review from I-Think-Snape-Should-Be-Gay (great name btw :) ) which has really helped me to write this chapter, so I hope that you get that James is (slowly) starting to change. _

_Thanks as always,_

_Millie xxx_

**

* * *

Chapter 12**

Lily looked over her shoulder to where Mary, Emily and Marlene were sitting, receiving a frosty glare in return.

"Lily? Is there a reason you're looking over at them?" Elizabeth asked coldly.

"Lizzy, why do we have to fight with them? You haven't even spoken to Sirius since what happened, and now it's nearly Christmas!" Lily said sadly.

"Lily, do you not get it at all? She thinks she's the victim, but she is the one who ruined our relationship!"

"What relationship?" Lily interrupted. "It was your first date!"

Elizabeth stared at her. "Fine. If you feel like that, then maybe you should go and sit with them."

"Are you serious? This is so childish!"

"Seriously," Elizabeth glared at her. "If you don't want to fully support me, then I don't want to be friends with you." She turned side on so that Lily couldn't see her face.

Lily didn't know what to say. She started to get up when Alice stopped her.

"Lizzy," Alice started. "Maybe we are being kind of childish about this, if you went and talked to Mar-"

"Do you want to join her too?" Elizabeth asked angrily.

"Alice, it's fine. I'll see you later." Lily smiled weakly. She walked off before she could protest, as she didn't want Alice involved in an argument she didn't really want to be in. Marlene smiled at her, but Lily wasn't going to talk to them either, they were as bad as each other. Still, now she was friendless and alone.

She walked out of the great hall and into the corridor, propping herself up by the elbows on a window ledge, staring out onto the grounds. She sniffed and wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye.

* * *

James was late for breakfast, but this wasn't exactly unusual for him. Sirius and the others had already gone down, but he'd overslept. He pulled his tie down a little and ran a hand through his hair, checking his appearance in the dingy bathroom mirror. He ran down the stairs to the common room, then left and jogged down to the entrance hall. It was here where he saw Lily, obviously trying not to cry in the hallway. She hadn't seen him yet, and this left him wondering what he should do. On the one hand, this was an excellent opportunity to swagger up to her and charmingly ask her out, but on the other, and this surprised James, he didn't actually feel like doing that. He suddenly felt doubt seeping into his bloodstream.

"_You do realise she's just going to say no, right_?" James shook his head. No way. The problem was with Lily, not him. Despite coming to this conclusion, he still thought maybe he should try being nice for once, seeing as she was upset. He did want to know what was wrong with her, and if someone had upset her, and therefore if someone was getting hexed tonight. The anger that bubbled up when he considered this decided it. He started walking towards her, trying not to seem too cocky.

"Evans?" She jumped. "You okay?"

"Oh, it's you." She turned. "Go away, Potter."

"Lily, seriously." He looked at her from beneath his glasses. "Are you alright?"

"Potter, I don't want to talk to you!"

"Just tell me what's happened."

"No!" She said firmly. "Look, why do you care? All you seem to do is devote your life to irritating me! Leave me alone!"

James could see this wasn't going anywhere. So he did the thing he knew best.

He smirked. "Hey Evans, if you go out with me-"

"Oh of course, that's what this is all about isn't it." Lily just looked furious now. "Because you don't have an inch of sympathy in you. You make me sick."

She stalked off down the corridor, leaving James a little bewildered. He didn't understand what he was supposed to do. He was genuinely worried, but when he'd tried to show this she'd told him to leave her alone as well. He walked angrily into the great hall and sat down next to Remus.

"Great idea about being 'nice' Moony," he said, shovelling scrambled eggs furiously onto his plate. "Fat lot of good it did."

Sirius dodged a piece of egg that flew at him from James's plate. "Okay mate, calm it with the breakfast." He paused for breath. "And also, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Evans!" James spat food over the table. "Evans of course! Who else did you think I was talking about?"

"I guess you don't ever talk about anything else." Sirius rolled him eyes and faked a yawn, receiving a shove from James.

"I'm serious! It was Moony's stupid idea." James said, glaring in Remus's direction. "He said that if I was nice to her, maybe she'd think twice about me."

Remus smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I thought it would. Maybe if you kept trying, you'd prove to her that you are actually a nice person."

"I am a nice person!" James said indignantly. "Anyway, I still reckon Sirius is right. Evans just hasn't realised quite how brilliant I am." He grinned arrogantly, laughing and stuffing the last mouthful of egg into his mouth. "Come on Padfoot, potions."

Sirius groaned, but followed him unwillingly out of the dining hall and to their first lesson.

* * *

"Elizabeth was really mad, but I think she'll forgive you if you apologise." Alice bit her lip. "Do you think you can do that?"Lily shrugged. "I might as well. I'm not going to give up on the whole 'them making up' thing though. We're in sixth year, yet they're acting like children."

"I know. I wish one of them would just apologise." Alice sighed.

Lily snorted. "Not much chance of that. Marlene's always been stubborn, and Elizabeth feels cheated out of something she really wanted. I don't think either of them are going to apologise that quickly."

"Ah well." Alice smiled. "It's their stupid fight."

"Very true." Lily laughed. She saw a tall boy with a round face waving in their direction. "Alice, it's Frank."

Alice waved, then turned around as he beckoned to her. "Do you mind if I go?""Alice it's fine!" Lily assured her. "Don't take too long though, Potions starts in two minutes."

"Back in a second!" Alice wiggled her eyebrows, then left to meet her boyfriend. Lily leaned against the wall of the corridor, and saw Potter grinning at her suggestively from across the hall. She span around so that she was facing the other way and tried to ignore it.

"_Please don't come over here, please don't come over here_." She begged silently. As she was desperately hoping James would leave her alone for once, she remembered his weird behaviour from earlier. It was almost as if he had been trying to be…nice. And James Potter was never 'nice'. Irritating, cocky, big-headed, infuriating and extremely arrogant, yes, but nice? Never. As far as Lily knew, there was nothing about James remotely nice, nor anything positive for that matter. He was nothing but annoying and horrible towards her, and he hexed and cursed students five years younger than him, which in Lily's book was simply cruel. So she didn't understand why she'd even thought for a millisecond he was being nice. It wasn't that she'd hated what he had said, well, not until the last part where he seemed to have miraculously turned back to his usual bullying self, but she'd just wanted to be left alone. That was why she'd lashed out at him, and obviously because she completely hated his guts. Had she just imagined it all?

"_Of course I've imagined it. James Potter? Nice? Don't make me laugh. Not in a million years. He's a self satisfied troll, and he always will be._" She thought, content with her conclusion, because quite frankly, the whole idea of James saying anything kind was beyond ridiculous.

* * *

James felt stupid, which confused and annoyed him. He wasn't stupid, far from it, but after this morning he felt it, and he didn't like it. He looked over at Lily from across the classroom and felt a pang in his stomach, realising that what had happened with her had made him feel…embarrassed.

"_What have I to be embarrassed about? I'm never embarrassed!_" He thought angrily, but knowing it wasn't really true. In third year, when he'd first admired Lily and asked her out, he'd been very confident she would say yes. He was good looking, and highly desirable. He hadn't had a girlfriend for the two years before this, wanting to concentrate fully on his Quidditch, and quite frankly not caring about girls yet, and so thought she'd be flattered. He was immensely popular, cool and smart. In his opinion, what wasn't there to like? Lily hadn't seen it like that. He had noticed her for a while now, but not as long as she'd known that she hated him. He bullied everyone, particularly her best friend, and was as fat-headed as anything. She'd wanted nothing to do with him. Despite this, she'd politely but firmly refused his smooth invitation to Hogsmeade, and this was the moment James hated to remember. Disappointment, humiliation and surprise all whirled into one huge pit of embarrassment, and him way of lashing out was making a fool out of himself. He wasn't going to give up that easily, and with Sirius's heavy influence, he'd asked her out every time he saw her since. This had made Lily hate him even more, and James had been too blind to see that. Now that he'd tried something else, he felt stupid and sulky. That was an idea he was never trying again.

"James! Psst, James!" Sirius hissed, throwing a paper aeroplane at James's head.

"Sirius, what?" James whispered back, mildly annoyed. Sirius pointed at the piece of paper in James's hands. He opened the plane, trying to decipher Sirius's messy scrawl.

_Where's Snivellus?_

James looked around him, and saw that Sirius was right, Snape was nowhere to be found. He shrugged. It was strange, because Snape was never ill, despite looking permanently sick, and was never sent home for any reason. James couldn't remember him ever missing a lesson. He surveyed the room again, and wrote a message back to Sirius, throwing the paper when Slughorn's back was turned.

_Yaxley isn't here either. _

Sirius gave James a puzzled look, but they both knew something wasn't right.

* * *

"Elizabeth," Lily caught her friend's arm.

"Yeah-" She turned, then stopped. "Oh, it's you."

"Lizzy, let's not fight." Lily smiled sadly. "I just want us all to be friends again."

Elizabeth looked doubtful for a second, but smiled. "Okay Lily. But I'm not apologising to Marlene."

"Of course not." Lily said quickly.

"By the way, I'm sorry too, I think I kind of overreacted yesterday at breakfast." Elizabeth said awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it." Lily said happily. "Look, there's Alice."

She called Alice over, who bounded up to them enthusiastically.

"Hey guys! What's going on?"

"Not much, we were just talking." Lily explained, giving Alice a knowing look.

"There's something I want to say to both of you," Elizabeth said suddenly serious.

"Is it bad?" Lily asked.

"No…not really." Elizabeth said slowly. "Have you guys noticed how some of the Slytherin students have been missing classes?"

Lily and Alice thought for a moment.

"I hadn't really noticed, but now that you've said that…then yeah, I guess they have. Macnair and Travis were missing just today in Care of Magical Creatures." Alice said contemplatively. "That's weird."

"What do you think they're doing?" Lily asked quietly, having noticed Snape had been missing from Potions the day before.

"I don't know." Elizabeth said darkly. "But I'd bet it's _definitely_ against school rules."


	13. Chapter 13

_Hey, this took a while and I'm sorry about that, but I got bored with this chapter (I'm voting worse so far) and also I've had loads of school work, so please forgive me. Anyway here it is, I hope you enjoy it more than I did! _

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 13**

"Okay Alice, enough is enough." Lily said suddenly, breaking their study silence.

"Shh!" Madame Pince hissed. "This is a library!"

"Sorry." Lily whispered. "What are we going to do about Marlene and Lizzy?"

Alice shrugged. "It's been weeks. It's nearly Christmas! Do you really think they can make up?"

"They've been friends for years!" Lily protested. "It really can't be that hard."

"Okay, if you're sure." Alice smiled uncertainly. "What the plan?"

"Well, to be honest…" Lily breathed. "I don't know."

"Wonderful."

"But there has to be a way! I know they're still friends really…we just have to make them see it!" Lily said wide-eyed.

"You mean, put them in a situation where they _have _to help each other…" Alice said slowly. "And realise that they're still friends after all."

"Exactly."

"Okay, so how on earth do we do that?" Alice asked sceptically.

"Well, I think we're going to need Mary and Emily."

"What?" Alice received another death-glare from Madame Pince. "_What?" _She hissed. "No way! They'll never help us!"

"I'm pretty sure they want to be friends with us again, and if we're willing to do this, then why wouldn't they be?" Lily frowned.

"Because, my naïve little friend, Emily is seriously annoyed with Elizabeth, because she didn't tell her that she was meeting Black, and they're supposed to tell each other everything, and Mary is Marlene's best friend, and is also completely under her thumb. She'll never help us."

"What if we get Lizzy to apologise to Emily?" Lily suggested.

"It could work, but after all this time? I don't know." Alice said quietly.

"Don't know what?" Elizabeth's voice sounded as she put her books down at their table.

"Nothing, nothing, we were talking about nothing." Alice said extremely quickly.

"Alice, you just said nothing three times in one sentence." Elizabeth stated, looking bored. "What's going on?"

Lily took a deep breath. "Do you think you should apologise to Emily?"

Elizabeth's head snapped to look at her.

"Emily? Why?"

"Because, Liz, she's your best friend." Lily said hurriedly.

"Was." Elizabeth said through tight lips. "Was, my best friend. Until she abandoned me for that selfish bitch."

"Okay, cool it Lizzy." Lily hated swearing of any sort. "The only reason she did that is because she thought you didn't trust her."

"Really? Do you think that's why?" Elizabeth asked hopefully, her attitude changing completely in a split second. Lily nodded slowly. She hadn't actually realised how much Elizabeth had missed Emily until that point.

"Yeah." Lily answered. "And I think if you just explained that you _do_ trust her, and that you're sorry, then she'll forgive you."

"Okay." Elizabeth nodded. "Okay. Thanks Lily. I'll go do that now." She pulled herself up from the table and left the library promptly.

Lily grinned at Alice. "Stage one, Miss Alice, is now complete."

* * *

James and Sirius peered out of their dormitory window, squinting their eyes to try and see clearer. A small light was travelling at walking pace across the grounds which bordered the Forbidden Forest.

"It's got to be Snape, it just has to be." Sirius deduced.

"Moony, come and see this, seriously." James urged.

"No, for what seems like the one hundredth time." Remus sighed.

"Moony, this is serious! Snape and his little friends are having some secret-evil gang meeting in the Forest, and you're not even a tiny bit interested?" Sirius said, astounded.

"No, Padfoot, because that's probably just Filch."

"Filch never goes anything near the Forest." James said in a patronising tone. "No, it's got to be Snape and his friends."

"Okay, so why is there one single light that very much resembles Filch's lantern?" Remus asked, making the question sound sarcastic.

"Lanterns all look the same, so it's a stupid question." Sirius shot back from the window. "No Moony, you've got it wrong. This is serious Death Eater activity."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Now this is getting ridiculous. Death Eaters? Do you really think Dumbledore would let them have _Death Eaters _in school?"

"What if Dumbledore doesn't know yet?" James suggested, as the light disappeared into the forest.

"Well that's kind of unlikely." Remus answered. "But if you're really worried, then you should go and tell him."

"No way." James said immediately. "I'm not going to him with this much proof, I'll look like a complete idiot."

"So you admit that this is a completely made up scenario conjured up by your two's overprotective imaginations?"

"Err…no." James answered slowly. "But I'm going to investigate with Padfoot and Wormtail before going to Dumbledore."

"Investigate?" Remus repeated. "Okay, Nancy Drew, you _girls _go have fun."

"Ah, c'mon Moony, you know you'll come with us." Sirius whined.

"Never." Remus grinned. "And it's nearly the holidays."

"Doesn't matter. Moony, please, it'll be a laugh." James said pleadingly.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal." Remus started. "I join you on this absurd saga, but _only _if we start after Christmas."

James and Sirius thought about this for a few minutes.

"Fine." James blurted, then turning to Sirius, "we've still got two more Quidditch games after all."

* * *

Lily and Alice's idea of plotting a complex plan to get Marlene and Elizabeth to apologise had come down to a simple and admittedly childish idea: hold them against their will until they say sorry. The problem was that despite it being a primitive operation, it still required more than two people. Emily had caved as soon as Elizabeth had spoken to her, having really missed her over the period of time they'd not been talking, but Mary was much more difficult. It wasn't that she wasn't talking to them, or that she was angry at them, it was just that she was completely under Marlene's control, and would never come close to "betraying" her.

"I don't see a way around it, Lily." Alice said. "We've tried everything. We're just going to have to do it without her."

"But Marlene's always with her. If we suddenly jump on her Mary'll be there in an instant." Emily put in.

"There's got to be some time when they're not with each other." Lily crinkled her brow in thought.

There was silence for a minute while everyone thought it over.

"After Herbology." Emily said suddenly. "It's the only lesson they don't have together. Marlene goes to Herbology, Mary goes to Ancient Runes. We'll get her then."

"Okay. So where are we going to do this?" Alice asked.

"I've got Ancient Runes with Mary and Elizabeth, so I'll take Elizabeth off with me to an empty classroom on the third floor. Alice, you have Herbology with Marlene, so go and 'apologise', then bring her up to meet us in the empty classroom. Emily, just come when you can."

She nodded. "Okay."

Alice grinned. "Let's go."

* * *

Lily glanced up from her work. The classroom was silent, the only sound coming from quills moving across parchment. Elizabeth was sitting next to her on the desk, her head bent low to the table. Lily jumped as the bell went, rising up from her seat.

"Okay Class, good work today. See you next lesson." The teacher spoke, but Lily was too preoccupied to listen.

Lizzy," she got her friend's attention.

"Yeah?"

"Um, I really want to show you something." Lily winced. She hadn't thought of how she was going to _get _Elizabeth to the classroom, and now she was sounding suspicious and a little creepy.

"Okay…" Elizabeth said slowly. Lily walked a little ahead of Elizabeth so she wouldn't have to explain herself on the way there.

They were outside of the room when Elizabeth suddenly asked what was going on.

"Lily, what is this?"

Lily didn't say anything, but pushed Elizabeth into the room. Marlene looked up and gasped.

"What the hell is _she _doing here?"

"Don't worry, I'm leaving." Elizabeth spat, making for the door. Lily grabbed her, holding her hands behind her back. Marlene saw Alice closing in on her, and also tried to escape. She was too slow, and Emily caught her.

"Let me go!" She shouted, struggling.

"Not until you apologise to each other." Alice said firmly.

"No!" They protested simultaneously.

"Well then we're going to be here for a while."

"Why should I apologise?" Marlene hissed.

"Because y this is childish, and you're letting a guy come between all of us." Lily said angrily. "We've had to act like this is all okay, and that we don't mind not being friends with each other, but we've had enough. Now, apologise or lose us all for good."

There was silence for a minute.

"Fine." Elizabeth, the less stubborn of the two said finally. "I'm not over it, but I'm sorry."

"Marlene?" Alice prompted.

She glared at everyone. "Sorry."

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone, excepting her and Alice made to leave.

"Finally." She said heavily, smiling at her best friend. "Thank God that's over."


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey, yes it's been a while again, but this chapter's pretty long, so enjoy :) thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far, I love you guys :D _

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 14**

Since they had been forced to apologise, tensions had been running high between Marlene and Elizabeth. They mainly stayed out of each other's way, and when they were together quarrelled over insignificant things. Lily and the others tried to ignore it, and they could now at least talk to each other, but the relationships within the group were not the same. This was the case from when they apologised right over Christmas, and was still going on now in the new year. One day however, something changed.

"Guys, guys!" Marlene rushed over, her face slightly reddened. "Guess what just happened?"

Alice opened her mouth to guess, but Marlene cut her off.

"Okay I'll tell you." She sat down. "I was walking in the corridor, and then Marcus McKinnon came round the corner with Edwin Gash, and he came over to me, and he started talking about how much he liked me, and-"

Marlene's voice was reaching hysterical pitch levels when she paused for breath.

"Calm down." Alice soothed. "Just tell us what happened."

"Okay." Marlene gulped, and looked around her excitedly. "He came up to me, and told me that he'd liked me for a really long time, and would I like to go out with him next weekend to Hogsmeade."

"What did you say?" Asked Mary, clinging onto her every word.

"Yes of course!" Marlene giggled childishly. "He's really good looking, and he's on the Quidditch team."

Lily rolled her eyes at this. She couldn't stand Quidditch at the best of times, and the fact that a large proportion of Potter's continent-sized head was occupied by it made it even less attractive.

"That's brilliant." Alice said, beaming. "I'm so happy for you."

"Yeah." Elizabeth said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?" Marlene asked, confused.

"I'm really pleased for you. Marcus is a great guy, and I think you're great together." Elizabeth said shyly.

Marlene smiled at her genuinely for the first time in months. "Thanks Lizzy, that means a lot to me."

An awkward silence followed.

"Okay, urm I'm going to Defence Against the Dark Arts." Alice said, standing up. "Lily, care to join me?"

"Coming." Lily answered, smoothing down her cloak.

"Wow." Alice said once they were in the corridor. "That was bleak."

"What do you mean?" Lily frowned. "They're _finally _friends again."

"Yeah, but that silence." Alice shivered. "I guess it's just going to be you, Mary, Emily and Elizabeth then."

"Don't remind me. They'll want to go to Flavia's Bazaar, and then hang around Zonko's hoping some guy will chat them up." Lily sighed. "Not my dream weekend."

"Why not get a date too?" Alice asked.

Lily laughed. "Yeah, right."

"I'm serious!" Alice replied. "The closest you've ever come is that Thomas boy last year! You're one of the prettiest girls in our year, and the smartest. You could get a date so easily."

"I don't want one just for the sake of it!"

"So find someone you actually like."

"The possibility of that happening are so small." Lily said sadly. "Specially with Potter around."

"He can't chase everyone off." Alice said seriously. "You've just got to find the person who can stick up to him."

"Okay Alice." Lily sighed. "For you. I will keep hoping. But believe me when I say, there is _no one _out there."

* * *

Percius Mingleton was irritating. He was only a second year, but was one of the biggest boys in that year. This was still not very big, not in comparison to James's extremely tall frame. This, however, did not stop him irritating the life out of James. He was one of those boys who had hidden from the bully in their first year, but now, as they were no longer the youngest, and had a lot more confidence, they thought they'd show it off a little. It would start with a little giggling behind older boys backs. This was mildly irritating, but nothing a small misaimed hex just above their heads wouldn't solve. But Percius had quickly evolved. Now he thought it funny to openly insult James and his friends, then leg it down the hall. Normally if this had happened, James would have solved it by hexing him, not quite bad enough to keep him in the hospital wing more than an afternoon, then left him to wonder if he _really _wanted to go through having extremely long bogeys hanging out of his nose again. This was, actually what James had done, but the difference was that Percius wouldn't stop. He, instead of feeling ashamed and embarrassed, felt angry and the need to punish James for humiliating him. This came in the form of more insults and weak curses ore jinxes being thrown at James. James had eventually snapped, and had given Percius, with the help of Sirius, a more public and longer lasting embarrassing injury, leading to a heavy deduction of house points and two weeks worth of detention.

James was now sitting in afore mentioned detention, kicking the ground with his feet. He glanced up and saw that Flitwick appeared to have fallen asleep completely, and was lying on the desk, his long, grey hair draped over the heavy books surrounding him. James turned around and threw a piece of crumpled up parchment and Sirius.

"Yeah?" Sirius looked up casually.

"What's up with this?" James said angrily. "If that Percius kid hadn't been such an idiot we wouldn't be here."

"Merlin James, just cool it. The kid got what he deserved.""Yeah, I guess you're right." James sighed. "I can still hate his guts."

"Yep." Sirius answered, bored.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until the sound of someone coming in awoke Flitwick. James didn't turn around, knowing it was just another layabout who'd got caught.

Flitwick nearly fell off his chair.

"Miss Evans?" He asked in disbelief. James spun around so fast he nearly fell off _his _chair.

Lily smiled, embarrassed. "I assume you're here to bring me a message of some sort?" Flitwick chuckled to himself.

"Err…" Lily looked down at the floor. "No sir, um, I'm here for detention."

"Oh," Flitwick sounded surprised. "Please sit down then Miss Evans."

Lily made her way to a desk that was as far away from James as possible.

James was aching to know what she could possibly have done to get here. To his knowledge, Lily hadn't been to a single detention in her whole Hogwarts career. He tried to get her attention, but it was impossible. He noticed that she'd gone extremely red, and instantly felt bad for her. He felt a piece of paper hit him from the side. He unfolded it and read.

_Evans? In detention?_

James smirked. He shrugged, but then grinned. In his opinion, detention was going to get a lot more interesting if Evans was stuck here as well.

* * *

The day before, Marlene had come over to where her friends were sitting near the fire. She looked worried.

"Guys." She whispered, gathering them closer. "Marcus just told me that Snape and his friends went missing again yesterday."

She had everyone's instant attention, which Marlene loved. She smiled to herself before continuing, enjoying the drama.

"He said the word in Hufflepuff is that they're doing something dark in the forest."

"Doing something dark?" Emily looked confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means they're doing something related to," Marlene paused. "Related to _you-know-who._"

Lily bit her lip. All of the colour drained out of Alice's face. Lily reached down and squeezed her hand for a second, trying to give her some comfort. Recently Alice's eldest cousin had been killed by some death-eaters, and the whole family was in terror.

"You, you don't think they're going to attack the school?" Emily stuttered.

Lily shook her head. "You-Know-Who couldn't get past Dumbledore if he tried."

"But maybe that's what he's using the students for." Elizabeth suggested. "Get them to do his dirty work from inside the school."

"But surely Dumbledore would know, and put a stop to it…" Lily answered.

"Even so, it's worth investigating, right?" Marlene got to the point this was leading up to.

The others nodded.

"Okay." Marlene said, full on plan mode. "Our room is in eyeshot of the Forbidden Forest, right?"

"Yes."

"So, we'll look out for them, and if we see anything suspicious, then we'll catch them out."

"Then hand them over to McGonagall." Lily finished for her friend.

"Exactly." Marlene grinned. "Now let's go get some breakfast."

* * *

That evening, they all gathered in Marlene, Mary and Alice's room. It was already dark, despite it being early March. At first they all waited patiently at the window with the best view of the Forest, peering out through the lead paned glass for hope of seeing anything, but by the time they'd been watching for two hours they were scattered around the room, taking it in turns to keep watch. Lily was on duty, propping herself up on the window sill to stop herself from dozing off. Her eyes never left the Forest, but she was sort-of hoping that they wouldn't see anything. She wanted to believe he was innocent, but Lily knew that if there _was _any criminal activity going on inside the school, then Severus would be right at the centre of it. She still hated him for what he did to her, but she didn't want her best childhood friend to go to Azkaban. This made her want to protect him, but thinking about all the lives it could potentially cost if she did…

Lily's thoughts stalled her, and when she snapped to attention she suddenly realised the tiny ball of light moving across the grounds.

"Everybody!" She hissed. "Come quick! There's someone moving across to the Forest!"

They ran over to the window, Marlene throwing _Witch Weekly _onto her bed in a hurry to get there.

"Come on!" She whispered. "We have to get down there as soon as possible!"

They left swiftly and travelled through the castle in the shortest route possible, trying to make as little noise as they could. Whoever was holding that lantern was moving pretty slowly, but if they didn't catch them this whole operation would have been for nothing.

Marlene lead them out through a small archway that lead onto the grounds bordering the Forbidden Forest. For a second they thought they'd been too slow, but then Alice spotted the light moving along the edge of the woodland.

"That's weird," Alice observed, frowning. "Why aren't they going into the Forest?"

"Maybe they're waiting for back up?" Suggested Emily.

"I'm going for a closer look." Lily said determinedly. The others followed her lead, keeping a few steps behind her. She knew why she wanted the truth so badly: so she could really know if Severus was capable of this or not. As they got closer, the lantern still wasn't moving, but was still pacing up and down the outskirts of the Forest.

"I've got a really bad feeling about this." Alice muttered. "Something doesn't feel right."

"We _have _to know." Lily said in reply, moving ever closer to their target. They were now only a matter of meters away.

"I think Alice is right." Mary said. "Something is wrong."

The others stopped to listen to her, but Lily was too far in front to notice.

"I mean, it looks like he's _patrolling._" Mary continued.

"What's that over there?" Emily asked, pointing at a small silhouette, far to small to be a person, framed in light from the lantern.

Suddenly, time froze and everything fit into place. Patrolling the Forest, a non human companion…

"Lily no!" Alice said in terror, but it was too late. Marlene pulled them all into a bush, just as the figure turned around, flashing his lantern into the scared eyes of Lily Evans.

"Miss Evans?" Filch grinned dangerously.

* * *

That was how Lily Evans came to attend her first detention.


	15. Chapter 15

_I think this has been the biggest gap between chapters, and for that I apologize. Just to let you know, we're are now about halfway through the story, as I'm aiming to do thirty chapters or so. Also, sorry this chapter is pretty short, but I'm running low on material currently, so I hope you think it's okay. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed!_

_Millie xxx_

**

* * *

Chapter 15**

Lily gritted her teeth as she entered the classroom for her second stint of detention. Being out of bed after hours was considered one of the most punishable crimes at the school, without getting expelled that is, so she had four weeks of this, spanning onto next term. To make it worse, Potter would be joining her. He'd pretty much left her alone yesterday, but had spent most of his time gaping at her from behind. She assumed that he'd just been taken off guard. She couldn't blame him for that. Until now she'd had a perfect school record, no reports of any misconduct. He, however, was never got out of detention. Lily was prepared this week for his idiocy, but was hoping he'd just ignore her. She took a deep breath and entered the room.

"Evans!" James said cheerfully. So much for the ignoring thing then.

Lily didn't say anything, but just made her way to her seat at the front. She was right to have been worried.

"Hey!" James hissed loudly. "Evans!"

"Leave me alone Potter." Lily said quietly.

"Evans!"

"What?" She said finally.

"It's Hogsmeade next week." He grinned arrogantly. "Want to come with me?"

"No."

"Bad luck, mate." Black tapped his friend on the shoulder.

"Ah, worth a shot." James said in reply.

Lily rolled her eyes and tried to concentrate on the work she was doing. She had a few minutes of peace before he tried again.

"Evans!"

"Go away!"

"Look, you'd have a great time, so come on, go out with me."

"No!" Lily hissed.

"Wh-what's going on back there?" Flitwick croaked.

"Nothing sir, sorry." Lily answered, shooting a glare back at James.

This situation repeated itself several times before the hour was up. Lily sighed happily at the bell and left as quickly as she could. Alice was waiting for her outside. They waited until James and Sirius were around the corner before Lily started talking.

"Merlin, that was terrible." She said, exhausted.

"Bad, huh?" Alice answered sympathetically.

"Awful. I've got to endure another two weeks of this. I don't know if I can do it."

"Come on. Let's get back to the dormitories." Alice put her arm around her friend, and lead her back to the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

"That was, undoubtedly, the _best _detention ever." James grinned.

"What, because of Evans?" Sirius said frowning.

"Yeah!" James replied. "I mean, the time went so fast…"

"So you were asking her out to pass the time?"

"No, I mean I'd have been thrilled if she'd said yes, which she didn't, but…" James trailed off. He wasn't about to go off about 'feelings' to Sirius, that would just be kind of weird. What James _was _feeling, however, was extremely happy. He knew it sounded really stupid, but detention really belonged in his life. It seemed to him that he was never out of it. To have Evans there…it was like she was in his world, in his life, and he liked that.

"Hey Mooney!" Sirius threw himself onto the sofa. "Prongs said this detention was the _best ever._" Sirius mimicked James's voice in a stupidly high tone.

Remus smirked. "What, because Lily was there? How romantic."

"Shut up." James muttered.

"Seriously, how did she get in there in the first place?" Remus asked.

James shrugged. "Dunno, I'll ask her. Evans!"

She turned smiling, but her face fell when she saw James. "Go away Potter."

"Why were you in detention?" He called across the room. Her eyes widened as she ran over to where he was sitting. She took his hand and dragged him to a quieter part of the room. James winked at Sirius, but Lily pulled his head down to her level.

"Shh!" Her face was centimetres from James's. He couldn't help but notice how nice it was to have her that close.

"What?" He smirked, looking at her lips. "Don't want people to know you've been in detention do we?"

"No." She said, her teeth gritted. "I don't. I especially don't want it announced to the entire common room. I have a reputation, a _good _reputation, unlike you and your stupid friends, and I want to hold onto it. I'm not going to have it ruined by your big mouth."

"Okay, I won't tell anyone, if you go out with…"

"No. No deals involving you." She narrowed her eyes. "Being with you would worsen my reputation, _and _I'd hate myself."

That last bit stung a little, but James continued. "Fine. Tell my why you got detention, and I won't talk about your 'little secret'."

Lily sighed. "If I tell you, you won't tell anyone about what I did?"

"Promise." James smiled genuinely at her. He kind of felt close to her right now.

"I was caught on the grounds by Filch after hours."

James winced. "Ooh. That's bad. But why were you down there?"

Lily looked down at the floor. "I, I thought he was Severus."

James was silent for a second. "But why would you think-" It all clicked into place in James's mind. Marlene's room was directly below his, they must have seen people going into the Forest too.

"You know about the meetings." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Lily nodded slowly.

"Yes." Lily frowned. "I guess I should have known the _Marauders _would already be on their trail."

"Hang on- if Filch caught you, that means someone tipped him off."

"Maybe someone else in Gryffindor saw them too, and thought it'd be better to inform a teacher."

"Or it was them. They knew we'd seen them, and wanted to warn us off."

"But then they might be found out…I mean, it'd be a little suspicious if a group of Slytherins started reporting suspicious behaviour."

"Maybe they bribed someone from a different house."

"True, but then who would accept money under as serious conditions as this?" At that moment Lily realised how long she'd been talking to the person she hated most in the world, and suddenly felt extremely awkward.

"I don't know…" James was still mulling over Lily's last point.

Lily coughed. "Anyway, I've got to go. Um, bye."

"Hey, wait!" James called. He put his arm around his neck as he looked down into her face. "Um, do you maybe want to come with me and the others to find out what's going on?"

"What? Hang out with you and the marauders?" Lily seemed to be trying not to laugh. "Thanks, but no thanks. Besides, you'd only harass me all night." She scowled, and he felt as if something dropped through his stomach. He shook himself slightly. She seemed to be looking into his face, searching for something. There was silence before he laughed arrogantly.

"Yeah, I would. Speaking of which, want to go out with me next Saturday?" Lily hit his arm, hard.

"You're unbelievable." She hissed as she stormed off.

"Love you too!" James called after her, feeling kind of weird inside.

* * *

"Merlin, I hate him!" Lily said, crushing a piece of toast in her hand.

"Who?" Emily asked.

"James, of course." Alice answered for her friend. "Now that they're spending detention together-"

"Quieter, Alice!" Lily cut across angrily.

"Sorry." Alice changed her voice to a whisper. "Now that they're spending detention together he's getting on her nerves more than ever."

"Idiot, self satisfied troll…" Lily began whispering profanities under her breath.

"But you see him all the time!" Emily protested.

"Yes, but now I can't get away from him. It's like an hour in hell every single day." Lily hissed.

There was silence for a minute, broken only by Lily's angry and noisy way of eating food.

"Oh well, Lil," Alice smiled. "There's only tomorrow left before the Easter holidays, right?"

Lily sighed. "Yeah, but after that I've still got two weeks of Potter-filled detention before I'm free again. I still can't believe none of you guys got caught.""We're just masters of disguise." Alice grinned. "Anyway, what were you guys talking about yesterday?"

Lily felt herself go red, which she didn't understand. It wasn't like she'd done anything to be ashamed of, but she couldn't bare the fact that Potter was actually capable of a human conversation. She also hated herself for talking to him for that long.

"Oh, nothing." Lily shunned the conversation. Emily looked down at her watch.

"Oh Merlin, I've got to go." She pulled herself up. "See you guys later!"

Alice waited a few seconds, then leaned forward. "Okay, Emily might be as blind as a flobberworm, but I'm not. What went on with you and Potter? Did he threaten you or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Lily rubbed her forehead. "We just had a normal conversation, and it was weird."

"Do you think you might have been wrong about him?" Alice asked excitedly. She loved to see the best in people, but even she hadn't seen it in Potter.

"No. Definitely not." Lily said firmly. "He'll never change. He's always been a big-headed git, and he always will be." That, Lily was sure of.


	16. Chapter 16

_Hey there :) I was ill this week, so I had more time to get this done, hence it being out quicker. Thank you for reading! _

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 16**

James saw Percius and alerted Sirius. Over Easter his anger towards him had far from diminished, and although he was thoroughly enjoying detention with Lily, he still wanted payback. They closed in around him, their tall frames casting shadows over the younger boy. He physically gulped. It was obvious he was terrified, but Percius, being the obnoxious brat that he was, wasn't going to let that show in front of his friends.

"Don't worry," Percius told the quivering second years behind him. "I'll handle this."

Sirius and James burst out laughing.

"What?" Percius asked indignantly, not used to being laughed at.

"Oh Percy." Sirius snorted. "You just made my day."

With that the two boys lifted him up by the top of his robes and walked off with him.

"I demand that you let me down!" Percius squealed, writhing under their strong grip.

"All in good time, my dear little Percy." James laughed, patronising the small boy.

"You won't get away with this! You're already in detention because of what you did before!" Percius's shrieks were getting louder, and they were attracting a crowd.

"Oh yes, I forgot to thank you for putting me in that detention." James winked at Sirius.

"I'll tell McGonagall!" Percius trembled. "Let go of me!"

"As you wish." Sirius said, as he and James flung Percius onto the floor. He slid across the stone tiling a few meters, before coming to a halt. The elder boys stood over him, wands pointed at his head.

"Ready James?" Sirius grinned.

"Ready."

"Petrificus-"

"STOP!" Lily screeched from down the corridor.

Sirius moaned. "Every time."

"Hey Evans." James said easily, hand (obviously) in hair. "Come to enjoy the show?"

"I most certainly have not." She snapped. "What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing?"

"Well, I'm glad you ask. Me and Padfoot here were going to put a body binding spell on Percy here, and then do all manner of disgusting things to him." James said proudly.

"Why? Why would you do that?"

"You know that detention we're enjoying together?" James smiled sweetly. "Yeah, well, this irritating heap here put me in it, and I'm making him pay."

James saw a flash of annoyance towards Percius flash across Lily's face, giving him hope that she'd go easy on him for once.

"I don't care." Lily said finally. "Stop it, now, or I'll have to alert McGonagall."

"Aww, c'mon Lils"

"Do _not _call me that." She said, her eyes glaring.

James sighed. "Fine. Sirius, release the pig."

Sirius moved his wand away from Percius, who instantly jumped up.

"Under the control of a _girl,_ are we James?" Percius asked smugly.

James launched forward, but Lily caught his arm.

"Watch it." She growled at Percius. "Or I'll be the one cursing you." She let go of James's arm and stomped off down the corridor. James could still feel where she'd been touching him, and it distracted him for a second. He snapped back to his senses to see Percius scampering away. He caught up with his instantly.

"Evans won't always be around to protect you." He whispered menacingly into Percius's ear. "So watch your back."

* * *

"Why does he do this?" Lily asked exasperatedly.

"Do what?" Alice asked in a bored tone, not looking up from her copy of _Witch Weekly._ "I'm assuming by that 'he' you mean Potter."

"Bully people." Lily frowned. "I just caught him about to curse a second year. What kind of person does that?"

"Potter, and his stupid friends. They're all idiots Lil, forget about them."

"It's not that easy though, is it." Lily sighed.

"Is he still giving you trouble at detention?" Alice asked sympathetically.

"Yep." Lily said shortly. Since they'd returned to school, Lily's evenings with James had got even worse. Detention was like stepping into her worse nightmares, and she couldn't get away. She could feel her anger at him building up inside her. She looked around her. They were sitting in the library, her one sanction from Potter.

"Why don't you ask McGonagall to move it to a later time, when he isn't in detention?" Alice suggested.

Lily snorted. "He's never out of detention. Anyway, I'll need all the revision time I can get next term."

"So are you just going to stick it out?"

Lily nodded. "I've got no choice. Speaking of which, I've got to go. I'll see you later." She picked up her books and started on her way towards the dreaded classroom. She was half-begging for some kind of distraction, but was not prepared for the one coming her way.

Severus stepped out from behind her and tapped her arm. She turned, then saw who it was. She shrugged him off and started stalking down the corridor.

"Lily, wait!" Snape called after her. "I need to talk to you!"

"Leave me alone." Lily spat, not turning around. "I have _nothing _to say to you."

"Lily!" He called, running and grabbing at her shoulder.

"Let go of me!"

"I have to talk to you." Snape growled. Lily struggled against his grasp, but the look in his eye silenced her. She was terrified, but she knew she couldn't let him see that.

"One minute." Snape demanded. Lily's lip quivered as he loomed over her. She couldn't believe that the person she used to be so comfortable around could now have this effect on her.

"Fine." She said curtly. He didn't let go of her arm, but started dragging her towards an empty classroom.

* * *

"Where do you reckon Evans is?" James tried to make the question sound casual, when in reality it was the only thing on his mind since he'd entered the room.

"Dunno." Sirius shrugged. "I'm surprised she isn't here yet. As much as she hates you, she'd never miss a detention."

"I know, it's weird. And she doesn't hate me." James added after a short pause.

"Hmm." Sirius said in reply.

There was a moment of silence while James thought. "You don't think something's happened to her, do you?"

"No."

"But what about Snivelly?"

"What about him? They don't talk anymore." Sirius stated. James started to get worried. He hadn't told the others that Lily knew what was going on with them.

"_What if Snape knows that she knows? What if he does something to her to make her keep quiet? What if he hurts her?" _James's thoughts were suddenly filled with pictures of Snape doing horrific things to Lily.

"We have to find her." He said firmly. "Now."

"Prongs, Flitwick's going to notice if we just get up and leave." Sirius said sceptically.

"Watch and learn my friend." James grinned, thrusting his arm into the air. It took Flitwick a few seconds, but eventually he noticed.

"Ah yes, Mr Potter. Is there a problem?" He asked. James had the advantage of being very charming when he wanted to be.

"Nothing Professor, but I think I've left my Transfiguration work in the common room. Would it be okay if I went back to get it? I just need to find it, I wouldn't be long…" James crossed his fingers under the desk.

"Yes, of course." Flitwick smiled. "Just so long as you come strait back. Take Black with you. I find two heads is always better than one when looking for something."

"Thank you sir." James winked at Sirius, who was trying not to laugh.

They wound their way through the corridor, trying to keep their eyes out for Lily, but they couldn't see her any where.

"James, maybe we should go back. Flitwick's not that stupid." Sirius sighed. "And besides, I'm bored."

"Maybe she's ill." James shrugged, turning away.

"No! If you still wanted to be my friend you would never, ever have used that word!" Lily's voice was muffled, but it was close. James span around.

"You heard that, right?" He asked Sirius, setting off down the passageway.

"Yeah, I think she's in a classroom."

James started opening the door of every room they passed, Lily's voice growing ever closer. It was pretty obvious who she was talking too, and she was furious.

Finally they came to the right door. James and Sirius burst through it, to see Lily cowering as Snape tried, in vain, to reason with her. James could see in her body language, Lily was scared. It made him angry, really angry. He stood between them, looking down on Snape.

"Get. Away. From her." He growled. Snape moved towards his wand, but was too slow. James got there faster, and his wand was pointed at Snape's neck. Sirius was fast behind him, and Snape put his arms up in defence.

"Fine." Severus whispered. He shot a frosty glare in Lily's direction, who was trying not to look at him. As soon as he left James turned around to look at Lily.

"Evans." He put his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

She wrenched his hands off. "I don't need you to fight my battles."

"I didn't say you-"

"When are you going to understand that I just want you to leave me alone?" She left, going the opposite way that Snape had. James sighed, and closed his eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

_Okay, this chapter is also quite short, but I already uploaded once today, so really I've spoiled you. I hope you like this chapter, because it's the turning point of the whole story. I may have revealed too much, but it's pretty obvious, so I hope you'll forgive me :) Thank you for reading, and thanks to the people who've bothered to review, there's not many of you, but I love you anyway, so thanks to you Naomi S. Godson, Penguinpudd, Orion'96, Chris67, as well as everyone else, THANK YOU!_

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 17**

Lily's anger towards James was getting unbearable. She'd always hated him. He'd terrorised her since third year, and she had really, really despised him, but now it was worse. She couldn't get away from him because of detention, and so she hated him even more. Whenever she saw him she felt like going up to him and starting a fight, he was irritating her so much. All of the things that she hated most about him, like the way he bullied those younger than him, the way he fancied himself more than anything, and the way he thought he could get away with anything, now were all magnified fifty times. He was sitting two feet away from her, throwing annoying messages at her, saying irritating things to her, and all she felt like doing was picking up a chair and flinging it at him. She _loathed _him, and he didn't even seem to notice.

"Evans."

She gritted her teeth and tried to concentrate.

"Evans?"

"_Do not react, do not react._" She thought hard.

"Evans, hello? Turn around."

"Leave me alone, Potter."

"Talk to me, then I'll leave you alone."

"You wouldn't really be leaving me alone if I was talking to you though, would you?"

"See, now we're talking."

"Go away!" Lily said angrily.

"Why don't you want to talk to me?"

"Because you're irritating and self-satisfied, and I _don't like you_!"

James was silent for a few seconds, as if he was thinking about what she'd just said. That was, if Potter could actually think.

"Evans?"

"What?" She shouted.

"Shh!" Flitwick said from the front.

He smiled at her, examining her face. "You're very pretty."

"Shut up Potter." She muttered. She didn't take any comment from_ him _as a compliment.

"Hey, here's a deal." Potter grinned, and Lily felt herself groan. "If you go out with me, I won't ever say anything." He was joking, but Lily could detect a miniscule twinge of hope in his voice.

"Wow, what a strong relationship that would be." Lily rolled her eyes.

"So that's not a 'no'?"

"It's definitely a 'no'. Leave me alone."

"Come on Evans, you know you want to…" James was trying to sound persuasive.

Lily gritted her teeth. She couldn't get angry at him, she must be restrained.

"Quiet back there!" Flitwick called.

"Evans!" James hissed. "Evans!"

Lily's head felt ready to explode. Something clicked inside of her. She shot up, ready to scream at him, her chair crashed to the floor. He flinched, something she found vaguely satisfying. Then he opened his mouth.

"Come on Evans." He smiled at her cheekily. "Hit me."

Lily felt her hands ball into fists. He was so infuriating…

"Miss Evans!" Flitwick squeaked, in as dominating voice as he could manage. "Sit down!"

She looked at herself and relaxed, her anger fading temporarily. She muttered an apology, then sank back into her seat, a shell-shocked expression etched on her face. The bell went moments later, signalling the end of their detention. Potter lingered by her desk for a second, but didn't try anything smart. It seemed to Lily that he was as surprised by her almost-outburst as she was.

* * *

"I don't know what's wrong with me." Lily said to Alice, her hands shaking slightly. "I just lost it. I was about to scream at him in front of everyone."

"You've had public arguments with him before. Very loud ones." Alice pointed out.

"Not in front of a teacher. Only in front of students." Lily rubbed her head. "He is just…insufferable. I've always hated him…but now it's so much worse. Even the thought of him makes me want to break something."

Alice stepped away from her. Lily laughed and pulled her back.

"I'm not crazy." She assured her. "I'm just worried about what I'll do."

"You have got some self control you know." Alice reminded her. "I mean, why do you think you get such good results?"

"True, but all this anger towards him, it feels like it's building up inside of me, like I could explode at any moment." Lily breathed out slowly.

"Just try to zone him out. Maybe he'll get bored." Alice said optimistically.

"Yeah, right." Lily said sarcastically. Suddenly, a loud crack and a flash of blue light issued out from a nearby corridor.

"Oh no…" Lily said, running down the passage. The image she'd been dreading in her head became a reality before her eyes. Potter and Sirius were laughing as Percius lay writhing on the floor under a body-bind curse. They were encouraging their audience to come and write rude and offensive scribbles or comments on him using quills they'd brought with them.

"Don't try washing this off Percy." Sirius cackled. "It's permanent. You'll need one heck of a spell to lift it."

"Good luck going to Madame Pomfrey with that all over your body." James laughed, patting a fourth year on the back, who'd just drawn a particularly attractive troll, complete with reference to other…areas.

All the anger Lily had calmly been talking about to Alice bubbled up inside her. It powered through any self control she had, and she knew she had to let it out.

"You break it up." She said to Alice viciously. "I'll handle Potter."

She stalked up to him and took his arm in a pincer-like grip.

"Oh, hello Evans." James said pleasantly. Lily took him around a corner until they were alone. "Want me all to yourself now, do you?" He grinned.

"How do you live with yourself?" She asked.

"Excuse me? He had it coming." James said defensively.

"You can't just bully second years! Who does that? It's disgusting." Lily said furiously.

"He put me in detention!" James protested, but then changed his tune. "Look, maybe you're really angry, because you want to go out with me, but don't know how to ask."

Lily was well and truly gob smacked. "When are you going to wake up and realise that I hate you, and I will always hate you. You're a self-satisfied, big-headed, arrogant, lazy, irritating, insensitive troll, and that is why I hate you. You bully children, like an ugly coward, and you don't care if anyone is upset as long as you're happy. You're selfish, and I loathe you, and will never even get close to liking you. Not because I'm crazy, or just 'haven't realised I love you', like I know you kid yourself, I hate you because of who you are and how you treat me. You say you love me, yet you treat me like rubbish, so no one in their right mind would think that is true. If you really _did _love me, you would leave me alone, because I despise you, and will never, ever love you. So why don't you just do what's best for both of us, and never speak to me again, because, until you stop being everything I know you are, I'm always going to hate you." Lily took a deep breath. She didn't think she'd ever actually spoken to James for so long. Her anger spent, she turned on her heel and left back down the hallway, not looking back to see the broken expression on James's face.

* * *

"Prongs? Hello? Prongs!" Sirius threw a ball of parchment at his friend. "What's up with you, mate?"

"Nothing." James muttered.

"Seriously mate, what's wrong?"

"I said nothing! Okay?" James snapped. Sirius put his hands up in defence.

"Sorry, sorry."

"I didn't mean to shout at you." James said quietly. "I guess I'm just tired. I'm going to bed, we've got to catch the train tomorrow anyway."

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

James tried to smile, but it came out kind of lopsided. Truth was, he'd never felt so low in his life. All those fears he'd managed to push to the back of his mind concerning Lily had been rushed to the front with her brutal speech. For the first time in his life, he saw what he really was, what she saw. The years he'd wasted, wondering why on earth she wouldn't go out with him, and it turned out he'd just been blind. Lily hated him, she _hated _him. And she said she'd always hate him. James had always been so sure they would get together, like it was a definite part of his future. Whenever he imagined days after Hogwarts she was there. This sunny, rose-tinted images were fading. He couldn't force her to fall in love with him. She didn't even like him. He realised all the pain and embarrassment he must have caused her all this time and it physically hurt him. He felt sick to the stomach. All those times he'd thought it was_ him _protecting her, when it was him she needed protection from. He felt like the lowest person on the planet, one who didn't even deserve to look at Lily. Despite this, he was determined to please her. He knew now they were never going to be together, but if he could make himself less of a pain to her he would do it. She'd said that until he changed who he was she would always hate him. He knew what he had to do, but it wasn't exactly going to be easy. However, James knew that even a smile, or a look that didn't scream out "I hate you!" would make everything worth it. He was going to change.


	18. Chapter 18

_Hey. I hope you like this, because it's one of my favorite chapters so far. Thank you for reading!_

_Millie xxx

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_

**Chapter 18**

Lily sat in a compartment, on what would be her last journey to Hogwarts. She was definitely spending Christmas there, due to the 'exciting' news of Petunia and Vernon's engagement. The planning of the wedding was already in motion, and was set to take place during the holidays. Lily knew her mother had persuaded Petunia to place it there in the hope she would change her mind about not inviting Lily, but Lily didn't want to go anyway. She couldn't see how anyone could fall in love with someone as atrocious as Vernon Dursley. She didn't really know how to feel about Hogwarts though. Yes, she was excited about moving on to new places, but Hogwarts had been her home for six years, and that didn't just fade from her memory. It was going to be hard leaving. Despite this, Lily had kind of been dreading this year. Her and James hadn't exactly ended the year on good terms, and Lily was unsure about what he would be planning for her. At least she wouldn't be in detention with him anymore. It had turned out that the afore mentioned detention hadn't ruined Lily's record too severely, and she had been awarded the Head Girl's badge, which she was now pinning to the front of her robes.

"When do you have to go and meet the Head Boy and prefects?" Alice asked, still in her home clothes.

"About five minutes. I'm kind of nervous actually." Lily straitened her tie.

"Do you know who the Head Boy is?" Marlene said casually, but there was an air of interest there.

"No…why? Does it matter who it is?" Lily asked, frowning.

"No, but there is a history of Heads getting together." Marlene wiggled her eyebrows. "All those late night patrolling together…"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to go out with them, whoever they are. I'll see you guys later."

She waved at her friends and, trying to ignore suggestive winks coming from Marlene's direction, left down the bumpy corridor of the train to the prefect's carriage.

When she entered the small room, she found she was not the first to arrive. A tall, masculine figure was leaning against the back of the train wall, a copy of the _Daily Prophet _covering his face. Although she couldn't see his face, Lily could see the red and gold tie. At least it was probably someone she knew.

"Hello." She said quietly.

"Hey." The voice answered. Lily knew that voice well, really well, but something about it didn't seem right…he wasn't, he couldn't be…

"Potter?" Lily said incredulously.

"Yeah?" He said, looking up from his paper. He smiled at her, but it wasn't his normal, confident smirk, it was shyer, more genuine.

Lily was shocked, she couldn't find anything to say. "Is, is this a joke?" She asked, stuttering.

"No, but to be fair, I thought so too. Don't worry, I checked it out with Dumbledore and everything. It's mine." He laughed. His voice sounded more mature, deeper, almost.

"Oh," was all Lily could manage.

* * *

The prefects came in, looking unsure and a little lost about what they were actually supposed to do. James let Lily do most of the speaking, at least she knew what she was talking about. James just kind of looked at her. Once again, it appeared that she'd got even prettier over the summer. She was easily the prettiest in the school, at least in James's eyes. He'd enjoyed the look in her eyes when she'd seen him, and the surprise when he didn't say something offensive or mildly perverse. He hoped this meant his plan was working. As soon as it was over he left, flashing a small smile in Lily's direction. Again, she looked confused. He grinned to himself as he made his way back down the corridor to where his friends were.

"Hey." He said, sliding the compartment door open.

"Oh, hello Mr Head Boy." Sirius said sarcastically.

"I can't help the fact that Dumbledore picked me, you know." James reminded his friend.

"Whatever." He muttered. James looked to Remus for support.

"Moony?"

"You're not getting any support from me." Remus laughed. "Not after the stick I got for getting Gryffindor prefect."

"And it's not like this is even going to be an advantage!" Sirius protested. "When you said you were getting Head Boy, I assumed this meant 'pranks for all, and no punishment!' But no, you've decided to go all mature on me." Sirius mimed throwing up.

"Well, I think it's a good thing." Remus put in.

"You would." Sirius said grumpily. "All for a girl."

"It's not all for Lily." James said seriously. "She just made me realise what a horrible person I am. If this is what's going to make her like me, this is what I'm going to do."

"I still think my ideas were better."

"Your ideas were terrible, and one of the reasons she hates me. Anyway, she's not going to hate me anymore." James grinned. "You should have seen her face in the Prefect's compartment."

* * *

"I don't understand, I mean _what _was Dumbledore thinking?" Lily complained, whilst opening her trunk.

"I know, it's so strange, Potter as Head Boy. After all the trouble he's caused…" Alice said thoughtfully.

"I can't believe it! He is the absolute, worst candidate they could of chosen. And he was acting really weird. " Lily said moodily.

"What do you mean, weird?"

"He didn't ask me out, he didn't make any flirty comments, nothing." Lily looked confused. "He was just quiet, even…shy. It was really odd."

"Maybe he's as surprised as you are that he's Head Boy." Alice suggested.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Anyway, I've got patrols with him in a couple of hours, so I guess we'll find out then." Lily sighed. "I thought I'd got away from him, after what happened last term, and now I find out I have to spend four evenings a week with him. It's going to be a nightmare."

"Just suggest splitting up or something, or tell him he doesn't need to come. I can't see Potter being too thrilled about having to spend his evenings walking around the castle, when he could be playing havoc with the Marauders." Alice smiled understandingly.

"That's a good idea actually." Lily said happily. "If it's really bad, I'll just tell him he doesn't need to come. Thanks Al."

"No problem. Can we go to dinner now? I'm really hungry."

All throughout dinner Lily thought about how James had acted earlier on the train, and how he was going to act now. Maybe, after what she'd said to him last term, he'd decided to change. Lily only let herself consider that possibility for a moment.

"_No way, he'll never change._" She thought. She saw James staring at her, but as soon as she met his gaze he dropped his eyes to the table. Normally, he'd have winked at her, or taken her looking at him as an open invitation to come and ask her out, but today…nothing. It was odd, it seemed like he was embarrassed that she'd caught him looking at her, and Potter was _never _embarrassed. They returned to the common room, but Lily couldn't shake the feeling that something was up with him. She looked at her watch.

"Great." She muttered.

"Patrol time?" Alice said. The others had all gone up to their rooms.

"Unfortunately." Lily sighed. "I'll see you later."

"Tell me how it goes!" Alice called after her. Lily ignored her. She felt really nervous about seeing Potter. A lot of her wondered if this was just some twisted plan of his. Maybe it was a practical joke. She started walking towards the end of the hall. The patrols started at the top of the castle, and they made their way down. Lily was hoping it wouldn't take too long. She'd half-expected Potter not to turn up, but as she reached the top of the last staircase she saw him waiting for her, leaning against the stone railing. He greeted her with an easy smile.

"Hello Lily." He said. He seemed happier than earlier to Lily, but maybe that was just her imagination. In her experience he'd only ever been insufferably annoying; other characters did not exist.

"Potter." Lily couldn't help but sound curt with him. She felt guilty, but them immediately reminded herself that this was all some new joke or trick he was trying out on her, and that he'd soon be back to his old irritating self.

Despite being sure of this, Lily noticed how different he was acting tonight. He hardly said anything to her, only making suggestions as to where they should check for students sneaking around. Normally, given a golden opportunity like this he would have been flirting like mad, but today he said nothing. Lily was unbelievably confused. When the patrols were over he bid her a polite but empty farewell and left up to the boys dormitories.

"_What in Merlin's name is with him?" _Lily thought, while making her own way to bed. As she slipped into sleep, all she could think about was Potter, and although she still hated him, she could not understand what was going on with him. Being Lily, and having a trait of needing to know everything, she set her sites on discovering what was going on with James Potter.


	19. Chapter 19

_Hey, I know it's been a while, but my internet keeps cutting out. To make up for lateness, I will try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible. Also, I'm sorry this is so short, but I quite like this chapter, so I hope you do too. _

_Millie xxx_

* * *

**Chapter 19**

James had been keeping up his 'act', as Lily liked to call it, for a couple of weeks now. She'd been keeping a close eye on him for days, hoping to see some sign of his former self, but she came up with nothing. Although he was more controlled, mature and sensible, there was an air to him that told Lily he wasn't happy. Despite extremely disliking him, Lily hoped nothing had happened to his family, but with the war going on this didn't seem like an unlikely scenario. She kept waiting for something to make him slip up, to make him reveal what was really going on…

"Lily?" Marlene woke Lily up from her thoughts.

"Sorry." She shook her head. "I was miles away."

"We could tell." Marlene said pointedly. "So what's everyone doing for Hogsmeade next weekend?"

"Well-" Alice started.

"Me and Marcus are going to Madame Puddifoot's for a date!" Marlene cut across her. She received a reasonable amount of notice for this announcement before Alice tried to speak again.

"I'm definitely unavailable. Frank's coming down specially and we're going to spend the whole day together." Alice smiled at the thought of her boyfriend.

"Aww. How's he doing in London?" Emily asked her.

"Okay guys, let's not get distracted." Marlene said, not enjoying attention being away from her.

"Sadly, I am free." Elizabeth said, grinning sarcastically. "And I think the others are too, yes?"

"Indeed." Mary nodded.

"It'll be fun!" Emily said optimistically. "We'll make a girls day out from it. Shopping, then lunch, then more shopping, yeah?"

"I think I may give it a miss." Lily sighed. "All these patrols mean I'm missing out of study time, so I guess I kind of need to work. Sorry guys."

"Oh come on Lily!" Marlene scoffed. "You're always working. There's no way you need to catch up."

"I do if I want to get good grades." Lily answered.

"Well, maybe you'll change your mind closer to the time." Alice said quickly, to avoid arguments. "How are your patrols with Potter going anyway?"

"Weird." Lily answered simply. "He's just acting…weird. It's like he's changed, like something's wrong. I don't understand him at all."

"I know what you mean." Marlene interjected. "I've noticed that he's different. He doesn't play tricks, or curse random people in the corridor anymore."

"He is head boy now though." Alice reminded her.

"Yeah, but he's…changed somehow. I think he's a lot more mature." Marlene said slowly.

"It's only been a couple of weeks." Lily argued. "He can't have just changed his whole personality without reason."

"That's what it looks like." Marlene replied.

"Well, I refuse to believe that pig-headed idiot isn't still in there." Lily said angrily. "I'll bet this is just some long-winded, cruel joke he's playing on some innocent eleven year old."

"I don't know." Alice said quietly, after a pause. "I really think he might have changed. I don't know what's made him change, but I think it must have been something big, something important to him."

* * *

"Got a date for Saturday Wormtail?" Sirius asked casually, flipping his long fringe out of his eyes.

"No."

"I have." Sirius winked.

"Who?" Remus asked, frowning.

"Oh, no one serious." Sirius answered. "A Sixth-year Ravenclaw."

"Is she serious about you?"

"Yeah, she's liked me for ages apparently."

"Will you ever learn?" Remus sighed.

"What! She's got what she wanted, right?" Sirius protested. "She wanted to go on a date with me, and she is doing, end of story."

"Whatever, it's your love life." Remus smiled. "Speaking of love lives, how are you doing with Evans, Prongs?"

"Not that great. She's got over the whole confusion and has just become suspicious, and I'm pretty sure she still hates my guts." James replied dejectedly.

"You've got patrols with her in fifteen minutes, right?" Remus looked at the clock. "So just be nice. She'll see how great you are."

"Thing is, all we do is walk round in silence. I don't know how to be around her anymore." James felt awkward.

Sirius laughed, receiving a book thrown at him. "Sorry, mate."

"Just be yourself. Your new self." Remus added quickly.

"Yeah." James said determinedly. "Yeah. I'll see you guys later."

James marched purposefully to where he and Lily met for their rounds, and found she was already there.

"Um…hey." He said awkwardly, kicking himself inside.

"Hi." Lily said shortly, starting her way down the stairs. "Coming?"

James gulped and nodded. "Uh huh."

* * *

Lily was not having a good night. James seemed to have broken his silence with her, and replaced it with really uncomfortable small talk instead. She didn't understand where cool, confident James had gone.

"So, what are you doing for Christmas then this year?" He stuttered.

"I'm staying." She replied.

"Great." James said quickly. "Um, why?" He seemed to be sweating in unhealthy amounts.

"My sister's having her wedding then. We don't get on, and I'm not invited." Lily answered. She looked at him, and saw that he'd gone as white as a sheet. "Look Potter, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Completely, fine." He said shakily.

"You don't look it." Lily tried not to sound at all concerned. "Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing?"

"No." He said firmly. "No, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"Yes, Lily, I'm fine!" James said smiling a little.

Lily just stared at him. He looked uncomfortable.

"What?" He finally spluttered.

"You have never, in the time I've been at this school called me Lily." Lily frowned.

He shrugged. "It's your name."

Lily felt her curiosity start to crack her from the inside. "What's going on with you?" She blurted out, regretting it the moment the words left her lips.

"Nothing!" James replied defensively. He felt like his cover had been blown, even though he wasn't hiding anything.

"You know that's not true!" Lily was on a roll now, she couldn't stop. "You've been acting weird since term started."

James couldn't think of what to say.

Lily's face softened. She'd never looked more beautiful in his eyes than then.

"Has something happened to your family?" She asked sadly. "If it has, I'm so sorry. You don't have to talk about it. I shouldn't have said…"

"Lily, nothing like that has happened." James assured her. "I've just…grown up."

Lily's eyes narrowed suspiciously. James, growing up? Never.

"Believe me, I have." James said seriously. "Come on Lily, it had to happen some time." He grinned for the first time in what felt like months, and realised with a jolt that Lily was smiling too. He took a metal note, this was the first time Lily had _ever _showed a positive reaction to something he'd said to her.

"Okay." Lily said.

"Okay, what?" James asked nervously.

"Okay, I'll believe that you've changed." Lily looked into his face.

"What, you actually believe me?" James was surprised.

"Yeah. I do." Lily said genuinely. "This doesn't mean we're friends or anything. I know you'll slip up eventually and turn back to your usual self. But, for now, I agree that you've changed. I still hate your guts for everything you've done to me." They were at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. "Goodnight James." She said, going through without a second glance

James saw a hint of a smile in that goodnight, and knew that he'd made real progress with her that night. He also noticed how she'd used his name for the first time, and went to sleep with a smile plastered on his face.


	20. Chapter 20

_Hey. To make up for the long wait and short chapter, I've done this long chapter very quickly, so I hope you like it :) This is quite a turning point in Lily and James's relationship, so enjoy. Also, thank you to everyone who's every reviewed this story, you guys keep me writing. _

_Millie xxx

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**Chapter 20**

Lily's relationship with James had got a lot better after their patrol last week, but she wasn't prepared to admit they were friends yet. That would be moving way to fast. In her mind, he was to boy who cruelly beat up children three years younger than him, and even if he had grown up, their was always a chance he was acting.

"Lily!" Emily said, rushing over to their table. "You've got to come and see this! Come on!" She grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her to the entrance hall. It was pretty much deserted, and Lily didn't understand why she was there.

"Em, what's going on?" She asked.

"Shh!" Emily hissed, pulling her behind a stone pillar.

"What are we doing here?" Lily whispered.

Emily said nothing, but pointed to a scene a few metres away from where they were hiding. Lily could see pretty clearly what was going on. Elizabeth was a leaning against the wall as Sirius stood next to her, and casual grin slopped over his handsome face. He was talking to Elizabeth, and although Lily couldn't hear what they were saying, she could guess it from Elizabeth's love struck expression.

"Do you think Marlene's going to be okay with this?" Emily murmured.

Lily thought for a moment. Yes, Marlene had been totally crazy about Sirius, but that was two years ago now, and she was really happy with Marcus, she surely wouldn't still be angry?

"I don't think so, especially not after last time." Lily replied quietly.

"She's coming this way!" Emily said in a hushed tone, hiding behind Lily as they tried in vain to return to the dining hall without being noticed.

"What are you guys doing?" Elizabeth asked, coming round the corner.

Lily looked around her, but saw that Sirius had gone down the other corridor back to the common room.

"We saw you with Sirius." Lily said seriously. "What's going on between you too? I mean, after last time with Marlene…"

"Lily, it's fine." Elizabeth smiled. "I already spoke to her. She said things between her and Marcus were quite serious now, so I can see who I want. I was actually just coming to tell you all."

"In that case, I'm so happy for you." Lily said, hugging her friend. "I guess that mean you're busy on Hogsmeade weekend too."

"Actually," Elizabeth said slowly. "Because we've only been dating a couple of days, and because of the disaster that happened last time, he asked if we could kind of have a friends 'meet up'."

Lily started backing away. "No way."

"Oh come on Lils, it'll be fun!" Elizabeth whined.

"No it won't, it will be torture."

"But you like Remus and Peter, and you said yourself that you don't hate James as much as you did."

"It doesn't mean I want to spend my weekend with him!" Lily protested.

"I already told him we'd come. We'll all be there, it's not like you'll be alone with him! Please?" Elizabeth pleaded, flashing puppy-eyes in Lily's direction.

"Fine!" Lily spat. "But I'm not talking to him."

"Yes!" Elizabeth said triumphantly. "Let's go tell the others."

* * *

"Padfoot, what is it?" James asked for the final time.

"You'll love me for it." Sirius grinned.

"Just tell me before I hex you." James said through gritted teeth. "What in Merlin's name is going on?"

"You know it's a Hogsmeade weekend this week, right?"

James nodded. "I thought you were going on a date with Elizabeth."

"I was going to ask her, but then I had a better idea."

"What have you done?" James asked warily.

"Well I told her that I was bringing you guys along, and asked her if she'd bring her friends." Sirius announced proudly.

"What?"

"That's right Prongs, Evans will be spending her lunch with us."

"No, she won't." James turned away.

"Didn't you hear me? Elizabeth's going to set it all up." Sirius said, confused.

"Lily won't come." James said firmly.

"She might if everyone else is there." Remus interjected.

"She won't come if I am there, simple as that. Yeah, she doesn't hate me anymore, but she doesn't like me either. She won't want to spend any time with me that she isn't obliged to do through Head Girl duties."

"Look, just come with us and see. The worst thing that could happen is that she doesn't show up. It's not like it's a date or anything." Sirius tried to persuade him.

"And if she does show then it'll be a chance to get to know her. Just don't get your hopes up and you'll be fine." Remus said kindly.

"Okay, okay, I'll come." James said dejectedly. "But don't expect her to turn up."

"Fine." Sirius shrugged. He changed his face to grin. "It's going to be amazing."

"Padfoot!" James hit his friend with a sofa cushion, hard. Sirius didn't really notice, he was too busy following the direction in which Peter was staring. Emily, whom James only knew as one of Lily's best friend was receiving, unbeknownst to her, a glazed look from Peter.

"Wormy?" Sirius asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Yeah?" His head snapped in Sirius's direction.

"Do you like that girl?"

"What?" Peter's face went bright red as he started spluttering. "No, of course not. No!"

"You do, don't you Wormy?" Sirius laughed. "So what are you doing here? Go and ask her out!"

"No!" Peter said, extreme embarrassment etched all over his face. "Do, do you think I should? Won't she say no?"

"You won't know unless you ask, Wormtail." Remus said, inserting his opinion to the equation.

"Um, okay then, I will." Peter got up, and started walking over to where she was sitting, tripping up slightly. As he called her away from her circle of friends, Lily's eyes met with James's for a second before she pulled them away, but it was enough to send that jolt of electricity into his stomach.

Peter was making his way back over, his face even redder than it was before.

"So what happened? She say yes?" Sirius asked.

* * *

"Peter asked me out!" Emily said suddenly at breakfast the next morning.

"What?" Marlene asked, choking on her toast. "_That's_ what he was talking to you about yesterday? I thought he wanted your help with homework or something."

"No, he asked me out." Emily said excitedly. "Sorry guys, I guess that means I won't be able to come on Saturday."

Lily shot a glare in Elizabeth's direction, but she was choosing to ignore her. Lily wouldn't admit it, but she was feeling kind of lonely. Everyone was pairing off, and she had nobody.

"For goodness sake." Alice laughed. "First Elizabeth, now Emily, what is it with you guys and the Marauders?"

Alice received a glare from Lily for that too, they were on dangerous territory, and had already been unsure about Saturday.

"I have to tell you something." Mary said suddenly.

"_Oh no…" _Lily thought.

"I really like Remus, but I don't think he knows I exist." Mary finished sadly.

"Why haven't you told us this before?" Marlene asked sharply.

Marlene shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I was embarrassed. I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you all sooner, but just now, it sort of slipped out. I wasn't actually going to say anything at all."

"Mary, it's fine." Marlene smiled in a way Lily didn't like. It was her 'I'm about to interfere' smile, and what consequences this meant for Mary, Lily did not want to think about.

"Marlene please don't do anything!" Mary begged.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything that will harm your chances with Remus." Marlene said quickly.

Mary nodded gratefully, but Lily had noticed the careful wording of Marlene's sentence.

"She's up to something." She said to Alice later, as they walked to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"I'm sure she won't do anything stupid."

"Of course she will, and it will be Mary who get's hurt." Lily said angrily.

"Shh!" Alice said, grabbing the side of her cloak and grabbing pulling her around the corner.

"Alice! What are you doing?" Lily said, but Alice put her hand over her mouth.

"Over there! Marlene's talking to Remus!"

"You know, I don't _like _spying on my friends…" Lily clarified, watching them talk.

"He looks surprised. Oh no, you don't think she's told him how Mary feels, do you?" Alice asked in shock.

"I told you she was up to something!" Lily replied. "Come on, we'll deal with this later, we need to get to class."

"Okay." Alice nodded, following her.

* * *

"Hey!" Marlene said, suspiciously cheerfully as she sat down next to the others at supper.

"Hello, Marlene." Lily said, her voice dripping with ice.

"Um, hi." She replied. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." Alice said angrily. "Why don't you tell us what you said to Remus today?"

"What?" Emily asked, confused. "What did she say?"

"Yeah, what did you say?" Mary asked, looking as close to angry with her best friend as Lily had ever seen her.

"Oh, I just told him you really liked him." Marlene said simply, helping herself to potatoes.

"You did what?" Mary asked, distraught.

"Told him you liked him. Listen, Mary." Marlene held the bottom of her ear as she said it.

"Why would you do that?" Mary stood up.

"Because now he'll realise how much he wants to go out with you."

"No he won't!" Mary seemed very close to tears. "Now he'll just think I'm some desperate girl who-"

"Um, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Remus's voice turned the hysteria into complete silence.

"No, you're not." Marlene said smoothly. "What do you want?"

"Could I talk to Mary for a second?" He asked nervously.

"I don't know. Mary?" Marlene addressed her friend, a smug smile plastered over her face.

"Yeah, sure." Mary stammered, following him. She came back moments later, a gleeful look radiating off her features.

"He, he wants to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend." She stuttered, as her friends hugged her.

Lily was truly happy for her friend, before she realised whom she would now be spending her weekend with.

* * *

James woke the next morning, butterflies in his stomach. He knew she wasn't coming, especially now that the others weren't either, but for some reason his body wasn't acknowledging that, and was still putting his nerves into overdrive. He pulled on his jeans and threw on a shirt, before tousling up his hair. Being Head Boy, he now had his own room opposite Lily's. He prayed that they wouldn't meet in the corridor, and seeing it empty, ran down to the common room to meet Sirius.

"I can't believe you're still making me do this now that Moony and Wormtail aren't going to be there." James said furiously, pulling on his coat as they started on their way downstairs.

"Hey, who could have _ever _guessed that those two would both get dates in one week?" Sirius laughed. "The universe must want you two to get together."

"Shut up. I told you, she probably won't even come."

"Wrong again my friend. If she doesn't come, then she'll be hanging around Hogsmeade on her own all day. It's perfect, and she will most definitely be there." Sirius grinned.

"What if she persuades Elizabeth not to go on the date instead?" James suggested.

"Come on mate, look at me." Sirius gestured to the whole of his body. "Who could refuse this?"

"She's lucky to have you." James said sarcastically, but he knew he was only coming up with these excuses because of what could happen if she _did _show up. He knew he had to just be a man and talk to her like a normal person. She knew he'd changed, she said she believed him, what was the worst that could happen?

"_That she hates me and never wants to talk to or see me again?" J_ames tried to control his mind, but it was unstoppable.

"Are we meeting them strait away?" He asked Sirius.

"Have you looked at your watch mate? It's already 11:45. By the time we get to the Three Broomsticks it'll be 12:15. I'm hungry." He finished.

"Okay." James breathed.

* * *

Lily's fingernails drummed against the table.

"Lily, stop." Elizabeth commanded. "It's not like they're going to eat you."

"I can't believe I'm doing this. What if he thinks this is some kind of double date?" Lily muttered, shaking her head.

"Shh, here they are." Elizabeth flapped, standing up to greet Sirius and James. Lily remained sitting in the booth Elizabeth had chosen for them.

"Hey, sorry we're late." Sirius said charmingly, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Elizabeth blushed, and Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was hoping that she and Elizabeth would sit on one side of the table, Sirius and James on the other, but Lizzie was having none of it. She and Sirius snuggled up close as James slid in next to her. Lily shrank into the corner.

"You look beautiful today." Sirius said, looking into Elizabeth's eyes meaningfully.

"Aww, thank you." Elizabeth smiled, touching his hand.

James looked an Lily and saw how uncomfortable she was. He coughed, looking at Sirius.

"Um, shall I go order?" Sirius asked the group. "What does everyone want?"

"Butterbeer for me please. Lily?" Elizabeth said curtly, unhappy about how her friend was acting.

"Same, thanks." Lily replied tiredly.

"And for me." James said quickly.

"Okay, four Butterbeers." Sirius said, walking off towards the counter.

Silence held the group, until Elizabeth attempted to make conversation.

"Crazy about the others, right? I mean, who'd have thought those guys would get together?" She laughed awkwardly.

James and Lily nodded simultaneously. "Yeah, I guess it is weird." James offered, but it was such a feeble attempt that they retreated back into silence until Sirius returned.

Elizabeth and Sirius hardly touched their drinks, they were too busy whispering things in each others ears and giggling. Lily felt like she was going to be sick.

"Hey, do you want to take a walk for a few minutes?" Sirius asked. James and Lily's heads snapped up.

"Yeah sure," Elizabeth replied getting her coat.

"Uh, where are you going?" Lily asked, panic-stricken.

"Don't worry, we'll be ten minutes, tops." Elizabeth said, before mouthing sorry on her way out.

As soon as they were out of the door Lily swapped sides so that she wasn't sitting next to James.

"At least we don't have to look at them anymore." She muttered.

"Sorry about this, by the way." James added.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault." Lily sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Stupid friends."

James laughed. "Yeah, I know."

Lily looked into James's eyes for a second. "You do realise that now they're all going out, stuff like this is going to happen all the time."

"I can go if you want." James said, getting up. She took his sleeve and pulled him back down again.

"No, it's not fair of me to ask that." Lily frowned. "How about a truce."

"A truce?" James asked, surprised.

"Yeah. How about we just agree to be friends. Otherwise, the others will always be working around us, and that's not fair on them or their relationships." Lily waited for his answer.

"Do you ever think about yourself?" She didn't reply. "Okay, yeah. I'd like that." James smiled at Lily, and she smiled back. They were friends.


	21. Chapter 21

_Hey, I'm really loving writing this at the moment, and this is my favorite chapter so far. I'd like to thank Austentatious quickly, I will sort out the strait/straight thing as soon as possible. Thank you for reading!_

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 21**

James looked over the dining hall, and saw that his friends were all sitting with Lily's group. Lily herself was eating cereal, looking bored and ignored whilst everyone else chatted animatedly. Marlene wasn't there, James didn't know why, and Alice was sat on the other side of the group doing some last minute homework. He gulped, then made his way over to the table, sitting opposite Lily.

"Hey guys." He offered to everyone, but they continued their conversation after a couple of forced grunts. They were all in 'couple bubbles', not caring about anyone else. Lily looked up at James.

"Hello." She actually looked happy to see him. James felt kind of warm inside at that thought.

"You alright?" He asked, looking her right in the eye.

"Fine." She looked down, obviously not fine.

"Want to walk to class?" He suggested, mentally crossing his fingers.

"Sure." She smiled. She picked up her books from beside her and followed him to the entrance hall. James saw a few people looking at them in surprise, but Lily didn't seem to notice. He slung his bag over his shoulder and looked at her face.

"What's up?" James said as soon as they were in the corridor.

"Oh nothing, I'm just feeling a little ignored." Lily sighed. "They're all 'together' now. It's like I don't exist."

"I know how you feel." James replied. "Sirius has barely talked to me since Saturday."

"Why? Why does them being in relationships make them ignore everything else?" Lily said without thinking.

"They're complete. They've got each other." James said quietly. Lily looked at him for a second, scanning his face.

"Well, urm," she coughed. "I better go. I'll see you later." She leaned close toward him and gave him a fleeting hug. It was the closest she'd ever been to him, and James felt his goodbye stick in his throat. By the time his speech had come back to him she was gone.

* * *

Lily didn't know what was happening to her, but she didn't like it. All her friends were together in couple heaven, and she was still stuck on earth, alone. She didn't want to settle for anyone she didn't love, but now she was starting to doubt whether anyone would have her if she did want them.

"_But what about James?_" Her head thought. She stamped out that idea immediately. No way, they were nothing but friends, and that was just for convenience. She would not allow herself to sucked in by his charm.

"Miss Evans, are you with us?" Professor Slughorn dragged her from her thoughts.

"Sorry Professor. Yes, sorry." Lily stuttered.

"Quite alright my dear girl." He turned his attention back to the class, while Lily slipped back into her trance.

She and James actually got on well, something she hadn't expected at all. She enjoyed him company, his conversation. He wasn't as idiotic as she'd always thought him, she _liked _him. She shook her head. This was dangerous talk, and she didn't like what she was feeling. She did not like James. She didn't. But if Lily was actually honest with herself, she did like him. A lot.

"What is wrong with me?" She hissed to herself.

"What?" Alice asked, who was sitting next to her.

"Nothing. Never mind." Lily muttered. The bell went, signalling the end of the lesson. She leapt up and left the room as quickly as possible. She knew the next lesson was in only a few minutes, but she ducked into the girl's toilets. She felt a few tears squeeze themselves out of her eyes, and she grabbed a tissue to catch them. She realised she was crying, and ran some cold water, starting to scrub at her face. She didn't understand why she was upset. She looked at her watch, and saw she was nearly ten minutes late already. She ran out into the corridor, straight into James.

* * *

James was running late. Someone had charmed a first year's nose to resemble that of a pig, and James had escorted him to the Hospital Wing, before realising he had to get all the way to the Astronomy Tower. He'd been jogging up there when Lily had run out of the girl's toilet into him, knocking them both onto the floor. Lily looked up at James and saw she'd pushed him over.

"Oh my God, James, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Lily apologised.

"Lily, I'm fine. Are you okay?" James examined her face, and saw that she'd been crying. "Have you been crying?"

"No, it's nothing." Lily got up off the stone floor. "I need to get to lessons, and so do you."

James also stood up. "You're more important than lessons, Lily. What's happened? Are you hurt?"

"No, I told you, I'm fine!" Lily said, but she felt more hot tears stream down her face.

"Lily, it's okay!" James said pulling her close to his chest and rocking her, as if she was a child.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me." Lily sniffed. "I don't want to get your uniform all disgusting."

She pulled away and took out a tissue to dab at her eyes.

James felt awful. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't save her, as much as he wanted to. He wanted to tell her that he didn't care about his uniform, class or anything, that he just wanted to hold her and make everything alright.

Lily's tears were dry now, and she managed a grateful smile in James's direction. Her expression turned to a frown as she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

"Oh no!" She said, panic-stricken. "What are we going to do?"

"Okay Lily," James knew what he had to do. "If I get us out of this, will you _promise _not to tell anyone?"

"What is it?" Lily asked, looking worried. "You're not going to hex anyone, are you? I mean, what if that's a teacher?"

"No, this won't harm anybody, but it's against the rules. Please, Lily?" James begged her. The footsteps were getting closer.

"Okay, fine!" Lily said hurriedly. James beckoned her closer, but she kept a few feet between them.

"Lily, this isn't going to work unless you're right next to me." James said urgently.

Lily bit her lip, but obeyed. He took out his invisibility cloak from his bag, and threw it over them, just as the owner of the footsteps came around the corner. He was pretty sure they'd be able to see their feet, the cloak wasn't designed for someone as tall as him, but the three people didn't seem to notice. James tensed as he saw it was Snape and his Slytherin buddies, and he hugged Lily closer to him. He looked at her, and saw a unforgivable sadness in her eyes. As soon as they were gone he removed the cloak.

"What is that?" Lily asked, feeling the material in her hand.

"It's my invisibility cloak. It's been in my family for generations." James explained.

"So that's how you do all your pranks." Lily smiled. "I never got how you pulled some of them off without being seen."

James was glad she wasn't angry or upset at him, but was worried about what Snape was doing.

"What do you think is going on?" He asked her. He didn't need to specify who he was talking about.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Lily said sadly. "I'm worried."

"There's got to be a way to find out what they're doing." James said thoughtfully.

"There is." Lily answered. "Let's follow them."

She took his hand and started to run after them. James grinned and followed her. He caught up and matched her stride perfectly, but didn't let go of her hand. He couldn't help but notice how right it felt, how perfectly her hand fit his. They writhed their way through corridor after corridor, their steps echoing in the empty halls.

They came to a stop. "I think we lost them." Lily laughed. They were in a completely empty hallway. There weren't even any classrooms surrounding them, only an empty broom cupboard. Lily didn't understand why she felt so deliriously happy, but she had an idea that it had something to do with James.

"Oh well." He smiled down at her. "We can always look some other time."

"I'd like that." Lily looked into his hazel eyes. She'd never realised quite how handsome he was. His eyes were soft and kind, his features perfectly chiselled onto his face. They were silent for a minute, just looking at each other. Before she knew what she was doing, she reached up on her tip toes and gently pressed her lips to his.

* * *

James felt like his head was exploding. Lily was kissing him. Kissing _him_. James Potter. This was not happening, it couldn't be.

But it was. "_Do NOT mess this up. This has to go right._" James thought furiously. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her and bringing her closer to him. Her hands were around his neck, pulling him into the kiss. She wanted this, she wanted _him_. Her lips were crushed on his, and for that second James felt more happy than he ever knew he could be. He felt himself needing breath, and he knew Lily would too. They pulled apart, and James looked at Lily's face, seeking any indication that she was as blissfully happy as he was in that moment. Her lips were bruised and red, and James was sure she had never looked as incredibly beautiful as she did then.

Lily saw clearly what she had just done. She'd fallen for what she'd sworn she'd _never_ fall for- James Potter's tricks and charm. And it had felt wonderful. She wanted to be sick. She'd become one of those girls she'd always hated, who would just obey his every command as soon as he looked at them. She had to get away, she had to run.

"Lily…" James murmured. He looked as surprised as she was, but there were other things written on his face, which she hated. She felt guilty for what she'd done to him, and that made her hate herself even more. He stroked some of the hair off her face, and Lily could see where this was going. She covered her mouth with her hand.

"I have to go." She spluttered, turning away from him. The look on his face made her want to cry again, he looked hurt and confused.

"Lily, where are you going?" He called after her. "Lily!"

She didn't look back, but returned to the common rooms. She hid in her room until the day was over, mulling over everything that had happened. She couldn't look at herself in the mirror without feeling disappointed and disgusted. She couldn't bare what she'd done, and the worst part was that she felt bad for James, not herself. She collapsed onto her bed, and started to wail into her pillow.

* * *

James returned to his room, not sure what had just happened. Lily had just left him, and then he hadn't seen her for the rest of the day. He didn't know what to do, or why she'd left. Their kiss was amazing, why would she just leave straight afterwards? Then James started to think that it was something he'd done wrong. Although he'd had a few 'girlfriends' in first and second year, when he'd met and fallen for Lily, he hadn't dated anyone for fear of her disliking him. What if everything he'd just done was all wrong, and that was why she'd left? But it didn't feel wrong, it felt wonderful. James was worried about her, but let himself hope. If she'd enjoyed that kiss as much as he did, maybe she liked him now. Maybe they could finally be together. That thought made him happy, and he fell asleep hoping like crazy it would turn out to be true.

He awoke the next morning feeling more positive about his situation. He hadn't imagined yesterday, or how utterly brilliant it was. He and Lily had a connection, it wouldn't have felt so perfect if they didn't. He bounded down to the dining hall and saw a similar situation to the previous day, apart from the most important thing missing- Lily. He tried not to let that get him down, but this wasn't difficult with his new found hope.

"Hey everybody!" He said, a broad smile radiating off his face. "Where's Lily?"

Alice shrugged. "I'm not sure. She'll probably be down in a minute."

"Why do you look so cheerful?" Sirius turned his attention away from Elizabeth for a second to ask the question.

"I'm sorry Padfoot, is my happiness upsetting you?" James asked sweetly.

"Shut up." He said, looking at Elizabeth and touching her face. James felt jealous of what they were doing. He needed to see Lily, and soon.

"James." Alice pointed at the entrance to the dining hall. Lily was coming down the centre of the aisles, looking nervous and worried.

James didn't pick up on any of that. He almost tripped up as he got off the bench and ran to greet her.

"What's got into him?" Sirius said, confused.

"Lily!" James screeched to a halt in front of her. "Hello." He grinned at her. He wanted to hug her, but he suddenly felt very shy.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Lily said, not looking him in the face.

"Sure, of course you can." He tried to walk with her, but she kept one step ahead of him, still not making eye contact with him. They were soon out of view.

James smiled at her, but could sense that something was wrong.

"Lily, are you okay?" He tried to get down to her level, but she stopped him.

"James, what happened yesterday, that kiss-" She started.

"I did something wrong didn't I? Oh my God, I'm such an idiot…" James felt like banging his head against the wall.

"You're not an idiot, and you didn't do anything wrong, nothing at all." Lily took a deep breath. "It was my fault."

"What was your fault?" James suddenly felt very nervous.

"I shouldn't have kissed you, it was a mistake." Lily blurted out. James didn't say anything, but just stood there, motionless. "Please, please forgive me."

He was still silent. He could think of absolutely nothing to say.

"James? Look, I'm sorry, I was confused and upset, and it will never happen again, I promise. Just, please forgive me." Lily begged. James still couldn't respond. Lily felt tears start to fall down her face again, and she fled back down the corridor. James wanted to help, but he was in shock.

This morning everything had felt better than it ever had done. But now, Lily _didn't _like him, and it had been a mistake. James felt like he'd been put into a vice and crushed, and he could do nothing about it. He leant onto the wall before sliding down it, until he was sat on the floor. He covered his face with his hand, trying not to think about everything he thought this conversation would be.


	22. Chapter 22

_Hey, I know this is short, but my last two chapters were kind of long, so I don't feel too bad :) I hope you enjoy this!_

_Millie xxx_

**

* * *

Chapter 22**

It was the Christmas holidays, and a clean sheet of snow covered the Hogwarts grounds. James's parents had gone away for Christmas, leaving him abandoned at school. He hadn't minded at all, he'd even been looking forward to it, as Sirius was supposed to be staying too. However, at the last minute Sirius had received an invitation to go on holiday with Elizabeth and her parents, and couldn't refuse it. The worst part was, Lily had been left at Hogwarts too, so James had to go through the pain of seeing her every day. He felt stupid and embarrassed about what had happened. Even so, he knew she'd felt something for him that day, otherwise she wouldn't have kissed him. It made him even more determined to win her affections. After what had happened, their friendly relationship had deteriorated into nothing. Every time he gathered up the courage to talk to her again, he pictured her face when she'd told him what she'd done was a mistake. Now that the others were all away on holiday, there was nothing to keep them close together. James missed sitting across the table from her three times a day, he _really_ missed it.

James trudged through the corridors decorated with festive ribbons and candles. He could see from the window what remained of the choir singing carols outside. He didn't think it fair that everyone was singing about joy and happiness when he felt so miserable. He walked into the great hall, and saw magical snow was drifting down from the ceiling. His eyes involuntarily scanned the room for Lily, but when it came back negative James felt himself slump further into depression. He had to see her, even seeing her would make him feel a little better. He sat down and opened his copy of the _Daily Prophet_, trying not to linger on the deaths and disappearances section.

* * *

Lily felt terrible. What she'd done to James was unforgivable in her book, and she wasn't sure why she'd done it.

"_Because this is exactly what he wants! This has been his plan all along and you're falling for it!_" Lily tried to listen to what she viewed as the sensible thoughts in her head, and tried to block out the others.

"_Maybe this is exactly what you want though, because that kiss was amazing…_" It wasn't working. She concentrated on her book, but the letters all started to jumble up in her head until they were past readable. Lily slammed it shut, receiving a sharp look from Madame Pince. She kept rerunning that moment in her head, the dizzy feeling as they parted, the realisation that she'd just kissed James Potter, the boy she'd hated for years, and the look on his face as she ran away. When Lily looked at the facts, she knew why she'd run away. It was because she was scared. She loved everything about James, but after hating him for so long, she didn't understand _how _she could like him. She didn't want everything to turn out to be a lie.

She shivered, and realised quite how cold the library was. Picking up her books, she ran up to the common room and collapsed next to the fire, rubbing her hands and breathing on them. She felt a tear drop onto her jeans. She was crying far too often for her liking at the moment, but she knew that it was James who was causing them. Whenever she thought of how she'd hurt him it was liking turning on a tap for her eyes.

She'd just finished drying them when James came through the portrait hole into the room. He looked at her for a second, his eyes not quite meeting hers, before he opened his mouth to say something. He seemed to choke on his words, before turning on his heel and leaving up the stairs to his bedroom.

Lily felt her heart race as he entered the room, she felt the butterflies in her stomach. She smiled at the thought of just talking to him. She wanted to be with him all the time, and not feel angry at herself for it. She shook her head. She had to get out of there. Suddenly, a first year burst through the door.

"Miss Evans, Miss Evans!" He said breathlessly. "There's a boggart on the third floor, come quick!"

Lily ran behind him through the twisting corridors until they reached the classroom where the boggart had settled in.

"Okay, thank you Peter. Go and get help while I sort this out." Lily instructed. She watched the boy run back down the hallway before she braced herself in front of the cupboard. The doors flew open, and Lily was not prepared for what she saw.

* * *

James held the snitch in his hand, letting it go, then catching it immediately. He wasn't looking at it as he did this, just staring into empty space as he thought about Lily. Footsteps shattered his thoughts as a first year he vaguely knew ran into the common room.

"Mr Potter, Miss Evans is upstairs with a boggart. I tried to find McGonagall, but she's not in her office, please help!" He hurtled through his sentence.

"Where is she?" James leapt to his feet. "Is she okay?"

"I think so, but she said to get help! Should I not have disturbed you?" He looked worried.

"No, no, you've done exactly the right thing. What floor is she on?" James asked urgently.

"She's on the third floor, in the classroom to the left of the portrait of Alberic Grunnion. Hurry!"

James ran up the stairs at full pelt, his trainers squeaking on the stone flooring. He burst through the door, and found something he was not expecting at all.

He was dead. On the floor of the classroom was James, dead, lifeless. Lily stood over his body, crying, and pointing her wand at it.

"Riddikulus!" Lily wailed, but it had no effect. James's 'blood' was seeping across the stonework as she tried again and again to vanquish the boggart, with no success.

"Lily!" He ran to her. She saw him and hugged him, hiding herself in his chest. As James looked upon the boggart, it morphed and changed, until dead Lily lay on the floor.

"No." He breathed. "No!"

"Riddikulus!" Lily shouted, some of her strength back now that her fear had disappeared. The boggart changed again, into what Lily wanted it to, before shrinking back into nothing.

She seemed to realise how close she was to James, and she took a heavy step back.

"Are you okay?" James asked, closing the gap between them a little.

"Fine." Lily choked. Her face was wet with the tears she'd just shed. "Just a bit shocked, that's all."

"Don't worry," he soothed, wiping her face with his fingers, gently. "It's gone now."

"I know." Lily sniffed, managing a small smile. "I'm sorry you got dragged up here."

"I'm not." He said quietly.

"I, I didn't know it was going to do that." Lily pointed at where the boggart had just been, her voice cracking again.

"Shh…it doesn't matter." He pulled her into a hug, breathing in her soft scent. He'd missed that.

"I better get back." Lily said, pulling away. "I'll see you at dinner."

"Yeah." James said, trying not to sound as pleased as he was. They hadn't eaten together since the incident. "Yeah, I'll see you then."

* * *

Lily was tired. She curled up on her bed. It was the middle of the day, but with her heavy curtains closed she could easily trick her consciousness into thinking it was night. She tried not to think about James, but she couldn't. It seemed he was constantly on her mind at the moment. Why had her worst fear changed? Why had it become…_that_? Lily didn't really want to even imagine what she'd seen earlier. It had affected her so badly, and she wasn't sure why… As she drifted into sleep, she saw his face, his smile, their kiss…

Lily saw herself as if she was looking into a mirror, except they were in the corridor. It was that moment when she'd let her self control slip over the edge. Lily didn't want to relive this, but it seemed her mind had other ideas. She saw herself reach up and kiss James, she saw him respond gently, and she saw them break apart. What happened next, she didn't expect. She saw herself smile into James eyes, and whisper the words "I love you." She saw James kiss her on the forehead, and reply "I love you too." Then they joined hands and walked back down the corridor. It was obvious they were together, happy.

Lily woke up with a start. She was scared about what she was feeling, but she knew what it was. She _finally _knew what she wanted. She knew why her boggart had changed. She knew why she was crying all the time. She knew why she'd kissed him that day. She wanted what she'd just seen in her dream. At that moment, Lily realised she was absolutely head-over-heels in love with James Potter.


	23. Chapter 23

_Hey, I know there's been a bit of a wait for this one, but I've been really busy, and this is a chapter I didn't want to rush. I hope you like it! _

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 23**

After what she'd discovered about herself, Lily found being around James harder than ever. She avoided him for the remainder of the Christmas holidays, and on to the Easter term.

"What's up with you, Lily?" Alice frowned, talking to her over breakfast.

"Yeah. Why can't we sit over with the others?" Marlene asked, pushing some scrambled eggs into her mouth.

"It's just…not working with me and James." Lily said, looking at the table.

"But I thought you were friends now?" Alice probed.

"I hated him for six solid years, Alice. That stuff doesn't just go away." Lily snapped.

"Okay, okay." Alice put her hands up in defence. "Sorry."

"It's fine, I shouldn't have been so harsh. I'll see you later." Lily got up, but Alice followed her, linking arms with her and dragging her around the corner.

"What in Merlin's name is with you?" She hissed.

"Nothing!" Lily said, her face turning an unattractive shade of red.

"Lily." Alice smirked. "I've known you for six years. I can tell when you're lying. Spill."

"I can't!" Lily's voice was reaching record height.

"You were acting so weird back there, all that talk about not sitting with the others…" Lily could see the cogs turning in Alice's head. Alice gasped. "_You _like _James_!"

"Shh!" Lily shooed her further along the corridor. "No I don't!"

"Yes you do!" Alice pointed accusingly. "You totally do!"

"Fine, fine. I do. But you can'ttell anyone." Lily pleaded. "Please?"

"Of course not!" Alice looked mildly offended. "What are best friends for?"

"Thanks Ali." Lily smiled weakly.

"Aren't you going to tell him?"

"No!" Lily half-shouted.

"Lils, he's been waiting for this since he first met you. Don't you think he deserves to know?" Alice crossed her arms.

"I will tell him." Lily replied. "But not yet. Please, Alice, I'm so confused."

"Okay." Alice smiled. "Just don't leave it too late."

"I promise I'll tell him, just as soon as I've figured all of this out."

"And I promise I won't tell anyone, on one condition." Alice said, grinning at Lily.

"Oh no. What?" Lily groaned.

"You come and hang out with us again. Just a little more. If it's awkward, you can leave." Alice said, waiting for Lily's response.

"Well, I guess I don't have much of a choice." Lily said dully.

"No, you don't." Alice said happily. "Come on."

* * *

"Biggest match of the season." Sirius breathed. "Nervous?"

"Nope." James grinned. "Slytherin's going down."

"Nice." Sirius laughed.

"Do you think the others will come and watch?" James said, biting his lip.

"They always come." Sirius replied, confused.

"Not all of them." James reminded him.

"Oh, so by 'others', you mean Evans?" Sirius smirked.

"Lily, yeah."

"I dunno Prongs, she usually works in library during matches, right?"

"Yeah, but if I ask her, do you think she will?" James asked hopefully.

"Probably." Sirius shrugged. "I don't see why she wouldn't. Look, she's sitting with Remus and the others."

They walked into the common room, where their friends were huddled around the fire.

"Hey, Sirius and James are here." Marlene smiled. "Hey guys."

"Hi." Sirius smiled, giving Elizabeth a quick kiss on the cheek.

"So, big game tomorrow?" Alice raised her eyebrows.

"Yes." James answered. "Me and Padfoot were just talking about it, actually."

"Yeah." Sirius looked at his friend. "Um, all of you guys are coming, right?"

"Definitely! When haven't we both been there?" Remus replied for both himself and Peter.

"And we're obviously coming to support Gryffindor." Marlene said, not sure why he was asking.

There was a small pause.

"Err… I've got some work to do, so I probably won't make it. Sorry." Lily said quietly. "Really, I'm sorry."

Sirius looked over at James. He didn't seem too upset, but maybe he was hoping he could persuade her if he spoke to her in private.

"Are you sure Lily?" Alice asked, and James noticed the question sounded pointed, as if referring to something else. "We wouldn't want you missing out on anything with the group."

Lily stared at her friend, and once again James detected a second meaning.

"I don't think so. It might be a little soon, I don't even know the rules." Lily replied, slightly smug.

"I'll teach you." James said quickly, before he knew what he was saying.

Lily's head turned to face him. She looked terrified. "What, in one night? I really don't think that's-"

"It's possible if we start right now." James returned, getting up as fast as he could.

"Go on Lily." Alice nudged her friend. Lily looked around her, her mouth open. All eyes were on her, waiting for her next move.

She gulped. "Okay."

* * *

Lily followed James out of the common room and out into the empty corridor. His hand hung by his side, inviting her to hold it, but she resisted, tucking her arms up underneath her. He sat down on the floor of an empty passage way, and gestured for her to sit next to him. She kept her distance, not trusting herself around him anymore.

"Do you know _anything _about the game?" James said, only half-joking. Lily smiled, and shook her head.

"Nothing. Oh, except that it's on brooms." She said nervously.

"Good piece of knowledge there." James chuckled.

"James, it's hopeless, there's no point in you doing this." Lily said, trying desperately to get away from the situation.

"Lily, I want to do this, so that you can come." James said seriously.

"But why bother?" Lily complained.

"Because I want you to be there!"

"Why?" Lily was running out of excuses.

"Lily, isn't it understandable that I want _all _of my friends to come?" James wasn't giving up.

"I don't want to come!" Lily got up from the floor.

"Why? Why not?" James got up too.

"I can't tell you!" Lily felt her signature tears coming on.

"Lily, just tell me why and I'll leave you alone about this! Just tell me!" James shouted.

"No!"

"Lily, just tell me!" James's voice boomed through the corridor.

"James, I can't, I can't!" Lily screamed.

"Tell me! Why can't you come? Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you!" Lily yelled.

* * *

There was a long, icy silence. "What?" James asked finally, stunted.

"I'm in love with you." Lily said more quietly this time. "I love you."

James couldn't say anything.

"And I'm sorry if I've left it too late, or if you don't see me like that anymore, but there, I've said it. I love you." Lily felt hot tears start to run down her face. "Say something."

James didn't say anything, but he almost ran to her, and closing the distance between them in less than a second. He crushed his lips against hers. She was shocked for a second, but relaxed into his embrace, locking her arms around the back of his head. His hands were in her hair, cradling her face. They stood like that for several moments.

"_This is it._" James thought, as his arms encircled her. "_This is perfect_."

As they broke apart, James wiped the tears away from her face and looked into her eyes, brushing some of her hair behind her ear.

"Lily?" He smiled.

"Yes?" Her grin stretched from ear to ear. He liked that he'd put it there.

"Will you go out with me?" He laughed.

She nodded, sniffing. "Yes."

James felt his heart soar, and he picked her up in a romantic hug, spinning her around, before kissing her for the second time that evening. He grinned at her.

"I love you too."

* * *

They spent the rest of the evening kissing and talking, just enjoying each other's company. They walked back to the common room hand in hand, but found it empty. When James looked at his watch, he realised just how long they'd been out there.

"Well, goodnight." James said, not really wanting the night to end.

"Goodnight." Lily smiled. He reached down, and gave her a kiss on the cheek, but lingered there. She met his lips with hers, pushing his face onto hers. He pulled her in close, his strong arms holding her in position. She lowered her hands from his face, until they were around his neck. After they split, she breathed in his woody scent, trying to capture everything about this moment. He smiled down at her, and leaned in for another kiss. She put out her hand to cover his lips. He looked confused behind it.

"Enough." Lily said, taking her hand off his mouth. "Or I'm never going to get any sleep."

"Okay." James couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "I can wait until tomorrow."

"Definitely." Lily nodded. She paused. "One for the road?"

* * *

James sidestepped in anticipation.

"Okay guys." He called back to his team. "This is it. Let's get out there, and show Slytherin how it's done."

He grinned at Sirius, who leaned over.

"Prongs, why so cheerful?" Sirius asked.

James mounted his broom. "She said yes." And with that he kicked off into the air, doing a lap round the stadium before coming to a halt. He caught sight of her instantly, sitting in the stand cheering, looking straight at him.

"_She's cheering for me." _James thought happily, before playing the best game of Quidditch he ever had, because of just one more supporter in the crowd.


	24. Chapter 24

_I have many apologies about this chapter. Firstly, I'm sorry it's so late, and I have no excuse. Secondly, I know it's really short, but I've been having difficulty with this chapter and I thought it would be better to leave it where it is and start afresh with chapter 25. Also, because this is so late I thought it would be better just to get it up here, instead of making you wait another week. Anyway, I promise to make the next chapter super long ;) Enjoy! _

_Millie xxx

* * *

_

**Chapter 24**

James hopped from side to side and rubbed his hands together. Spring was definitely here, but being high up in Scotland meant the weather took forever to get warm. He had butterflies like crazy, but also couldn't remember a time when he'd felt more happy. Lily had arranged to meet him outside the Three Broomsticks. James had arrived early, in the hope that she would too, but it became clear that she was going to arrive bang on the scheduled time. James looked at his watch for what seemed like the a hundredth time, counting down the seconds to when he'd get to see her pretty face. Today had to go perfectly, that is if he wanted a second date. He glanced upwards at the pathway, and saw her walking towards him, the smile he loved so much plastered on her face. It was nice seeing her in her own clothes, and James noticed that she'd dressed up a little for him. Not that she needed to, in his eyes she was beautiful whenever, but it made him feel more confident.

"Hey you." She said, looking into his eyes.

"Hey." He grinned, leaning down for a kiss. He'd meant it as a simple greeting, but the kiss deepened quickly. James pulled away, his smile stretching from ear to ear. He would never get tired of kissing her. He took her hand in his, and led her into the crowded pub. As soon as they walked in together, the room went silent, students simply gaping at the sight of them. Word had got round Hogwarts that they were dating, but most people had just assumed it was some rumour James's friends were spreading. Now, here in front of them, was solid proof of what had seemed impossible. James felt kind of proud that he'd proved them all wrong, but when he looked at Lily he saw that she'd flushed bright red. He coughed to break the silence, and led her to as quiet booth as possible. She never let go of his hand, but kept her face to the floor the whole time.

"I'll be right back." James assured her, after she'd sat down. "Butterbeer?"

Lily nodded.

James squeezed through to get to the bar, where he ordered their drinks.

"Potter?" A seventh year Slytherin James vaguely knew addressed him.

"Yeah?"

"Evans, really?" The boy laughed. "You seriously got her to go out with you?"

"Yes." James replied defensively.

"So what's left? You've got nothing to work towards." He smirked.

"What do you mean 'what's left'?" James frowned. "I'm happy."

"For now." The boy smiled snidely. "You've got what you wanted, soon you'll get tired and want to go after somebody else."

"What?" James growled. He felt his anger building up. He needed to get away before he did something stupid. He grabbed the drinks, paying the barman and muttering his thanks.

"It's just a matter of time before you break her heart!" The boy called after him. James blocked out the sound. His anger disappeared as he saw Lily waiting for him in her seat, looking around her self-consciously.

"Sorry." James smiled. Lily smiled back and took her drink.

"Don't worry." She said kindly, taking a sip of butterbeer. "What was that guy saying to you?"

"Doesn't matter. Just something about me dating you." James replied, before changing the subject. "You look beautiful today."Lily blushed, making her even prettier. "Thanks."

"This isn't making you uncomfortable, is it?" James asked. "If it is, we can leave and go somewhere else."

Lily shook her head. "We knew people were going to be surprised about this, we did fight solidly for four years."

James laughed. "So you're okay staying here."

"Sure, we shouldn't have to leave. I'm happy here, as long as you're with me." Lily said firmly. James smiled inwardly at her words. Her hand lay on the table, and he leant over and squeezed it. Her face lit up, but she turned her head away, only smiling shyly to herself.

"So I never got to teach you the rules of Quidditch."

"I still came to the match." Lily pointed out. "And you played excellently."

"How can you tell?" James leaned forward instinctively. "You don't know the rules."

"I can still tell if you're playing well." Lily laughed. "You scored five goals!"

"I can play better." James lied. He'd never played better than he had two days ago.

"I look forward to watching you." Lily leaned forward too, so that her face was inches away from James's. He couldn't help himself. He closed the tiny gap so that their lips met over the table. She brought her delicate hand up to his face, cupping it as she responded to his kiss. As they broke apart, she remembered what a public place she was in, and looked side to side in embarrassment as she checked to see if anyone had seen them, which they had.

James laughed at her face. She turned back to look at him, and pushed him gently on the shoulder.

"Sorry." James chuckled. "You seemed to be enjoying it at the time.""I was. Doesn't mean I want everyone watching us." Lily grinned.

"You finished your drink?" James gestured to Lily's nearly empty glass. She picked it up and downed the last dregs, before licking off the foam moustache it left.

"Have now." She placed the cup back down on the table.

"Then let's take a walk." James held out his hand for her to take again. She held it gladly, and followed him out into the cold streets of Hogsmeade. They subconsciously started walking towards the Shrieking Shack, James forgetting that although he spent a large majority of his time there, she didn't.

James felt a flood of warmth rush through his body as Lily slid her arm through his and rested her head on his side.

"Comfortable?" He grinned down at her. She nodded.

"Where are we going?" Lily asked.

"Nowhere in particular." James said dreamily. It was getting later in the day by the minute, but James didn't want the date to end.

"We probably should start heading back you know…" Lily said slowly.

"Yeah, I guess. Come on." James started to change direction, but Lily stopped him.

"Or we could just…not." She smiled coyly.

"I think that would be better." James laughed. "That is, unless you have school work to do?"

Lily pushed him for this. He pushed her gently back. She pushed him again, not realising the momentum her hands picked up, and he fell to the ground, pulling her with him. They collapsed in a heap on the floor, too busy laughing to notice the odd looks they were receiving from the residents of Hogsmeade. All of a sudden they went quiet, and James felt himself pushing the red hair out of Lily's emerald eyes.

"Can I kiss you?" James smiled.

"I would hate you if you didn't." Lily replied, leaning in for the inevitable. James responded, cupping her face with his hands and pressing his lips to hers. His hands slowly moved downwards until they were around her waist, and she locked her arms firmly around his neck. He shifted his hands so that they supported her back, as they leaned backwards together until Lily nearly touched the floor. At this point she moved her hands into his messy black hair, running her fingers through the tresses. She let out a small moan while pausing for breath, and James felt it necessary to let go of her before he lost all of his self control. He picked himself off the ground and helped her up. He gently stroked her face before joining hands with her again. This simple act already felt so customary and right to him, they were _meant _to be together.

"So who'd have ever thought you would be persuaded to go on a date with me…" James smirked.

"I know!" Lily murmured. "And who'd have thought I'd enjoy it so much."


	25. Chapter 25

_Hey, biggest gap which is very shameful :( sorry, my uploady thing wasn't working. Thanks!_

_Millie xxx_

* * *

**Chapter 25**

James had spotted his target. Lily stood only a few meters away from him, and naturally he felt the need to close the gap as quickly as possible. He swooped up behind her, enveloping her in his broad arms.

"Hey Lily." He said happily. Lily made a muffled sound from beneath his arm, which he promptly removed.

"Hello." She turned to face him, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You okay?"

"Marvellous." James grinned. "Thank you for asking."

Lily smiled at him, then changed her expression to a frown. "Haven't you got astronomy?"

"Excuse me for wanting to see my girlfriend!" James faked being upset.

"You're going to be late." Lily said warningly.

"I'll see you on the pitch then." James said, before giving her a quick hug and a kiss on the top of her forehead.

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

"On the Quidditch pitch. Eight O'clock." James smiled mischievously.

"Why?"

"I only gave you that one Quidditch lesson." James laughed down the corridor. "See you then!"

"Oh no." Lily groaned. "I'm _not _getting on a broom."

"I still can't believe it." Alice smiled.

"Believe what?" Lily turned back to face her friend.

"You and him. Potter and Evans." Alice laughed. "I guess I just never thought it would _actually _happen."

"Me neither." Lily said thoughtfully.

"Don't get me wrong- I love you together." Alice assured her. "You're so happy around him."

"Am I?"

"Yeah, you never stop smiling. Happiness just radiates off the two of you." Alice said seriously.

Lily laughed self consciously, her face still beaming. "It's weird. I never thought I'd like being around him, but I do. I really do."

"Aww…Lily's in _lurrrve_." Alice teased.

Lily nudged her friend half-heartedly, knowing what she said was true.

* * *

Lily tiptoed through the darkening grounds to the Quidditch pitch, her heart hammering in excitement and nervousness. Her eyes searched the sky for James, and found him circling the stand, a black mark on the sunset. She was content just to watch him, but he spotted her and immediately returned to the ground.

"Hey." James grinned. "Ready for your first flying lesson?"

"Second." Lily corrected, remembering her disastrous first time on a broom in first year. "And I'm _not_ getting on that thing."

"Come on Lily." James begged. "Just try it. You'll enjoy yourself."

"But what if I fall and kill myself?" Lily said worriedly.

"Do you really think I'd let that happen?" James asked rhetorically.

"No…" Lily said in defeat.

"Exactly." James said triumphantly. "So just hold on to me, and you'll be fine." James mounted the broom and hovered a few inches off the ground. He held out his hand, which Lily tentatively took. She sat behind him, her arms encircling his body.

"Ready?"

"No." Lily replied.

"Okay, hold on!" James cried, before zooming off into the dark sky. Lily tried to hold back her scream, but it escaped through her lips and she held onto James as firmly as she could. As soon as they were high enough to get a wonderful view of the castle and the landscape surrounding it, James slowed down. Although she wouldn't look below her for a million galleons, Lily had to admit that it was stunning. The castle stood out against the orange and pink hues of the setting sun, the lights twinkling like stars.

"It's beautiful." Lily murmured, resting her head against James's back, and loosening her vice-like hold slightly.

James didn't reply, but in one, swift movement he flung his leg behind Lily and switched positions until he was behind her.

"What are you doing?" Lily said, her hands snapping to the wood in front of her.

"Letting you drive." James answered.

"Are you crazy? No, no, no-" Lily started to panic.

"Shh…" James soothed her. "I'm here, you'll be fine." His hands came forward and covered hers around the broom. He started steering it, guiding her hands. Although Lily had never been in a more terrifying position, she actually felt safe. She didn't tell James this, however.

"I'm so going to get you back for this." Lily muttered.

James chuckled. "Oh no, what could the mighty Lily Evans have in store for me?"

"It will be terrifying." Lily replied. "And extremely painful."

James leaned forward until his head was next to Lily's. He gently kissed her on the shoulder, and felt her lift one of her hands off the broom. Her head turned until it was facing James's, and she brought her free hand up to touch his cheek. She kissed him lightly on the lips, before kissing him again more strenuously, her hair blowing wildly in the wind. The broom wavered in the air, and Lily's eyes snapped open.

"Eyes on the road." She said with a wink, turning away from James. He kissed her neck, before guiding her back to the ground.

* * *

Severus Snape had grown used to feeling like his insides were being tied into extremely painful knots recently, having watched Lily, the girl he'd loved for years, become friends with the boy he thought they both hated. But now it felt like his insides had actually been ripped out and used to strangle him, because now the girl he'd loved for years was in love with that boy. Severus didn't think it was possible for him to hate James Potter any more than he already did, but that was before he saw him kiss Lily. He couldn't believe that the boy who had everything he wanted, popularity, looks, intelligence, now had Lily too. Almost everyday he had to see James hold Lily's hand, hug her, kiss her, and do everything else that Severus wanted to do with her. It was unbearable. When they first started dating Snape was sure they'd break up, James was a disgusting person, and Lily would soon realise how delirious she'd been. But it had been weeks, and it seemed if anything, they were getting happier. They spent every free moment with each other, looking at each other and touching each other, it made Snape want to be sick. He'd known he'd loved Lily since the moment he first met her, and if there was any time to tell her, it was now, before she made the biggest mistake of her life.

He waited for her outside Potions, one of the only classes they still had together. Lily walked out with James. She kissed him quickly, sending Severus's mind into an angry pile of hatred. He shook it off as he saw James go the opposite way as Lily, and took his chance

"Lily." He addressed her. She saw him, her happy expression faded, and she tried to march on. "Lily!"

"Severus, I thought I'd made myself clear." Lily said warily. "Leave me alone."

"Please, Lily." Severus begged. "It's really important."

Lily was worried, but something in Snape's eyes reminded her of years previously, of her old Severus. Because of this, she reluctantly agreed to talk to him. He was different than the last time he'd asked to talk to her, but she still didn't trust him.

"Okay." Lily said, trying not to let her fear show through. "What's this about."

Snape didn't say anything for a few minutes.

"Snape!" Lily snapped. "Why are you wasting my time?"

"Lily." Severus knew he just had to get it out. "I love you."

Lily left a pause longer than Severus's previously. "You, you what?" She stuttered.

"I love you Lily." Severus repeated. "I've always loved you."

"You _love _me?" Lily said incredulously. "So what was all the name calling, the ignoring for months?"

"Lily-"

"No, that was _love_?" Lily shrieked. "How can you just stand there and say you 'love me' after everything you've done to me?""Lily, I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean it-" This wasn't the romantic scene Severus had expected. He'd thought the moment he confessed his love she'd jump into his arms and forget all about Potter.

"Of course you meant it!" Lily's voice rose even higher.

Severus felt stunted. "This is about Potter, isn't it."

"What?" Lily's voice shrank to a miniscule whisper.

"He's brainwashed you, like he has everybody else."

"Leave James alone. He's never hurt me in the way you have." Lily said defensively.

"Oh, so it's 'James' now." Severus said angrily. "You said you'd never fall for his tricks and lies, yet here you are, completely under his spell."

"He loves me!" Lily shouted. "And I love him!"

"I love you!"

"James isn't the reason I don't love you, _you _are the reason I don't love you." Lily said quietly.

Severus felt stung. "You really think he loves you?" He said, his voice quiet and menacing.

Lily nodded stubbornly.

"Don't you realise what you are?" Severus had to break them up, even if it meant hurting Lily's feelings.

"I'm his girlfriend." Lily replied. "And I've never been happier."

Severus didn't want to make her unhappy, but he genuinely believed that Lily was lying to herself, and that James was slowly killing his Lily and her memory. "You're nothing to him but a trophy."

"What?" Lily stopped.

Severus felt like he had stuck gold. Lily was vulnerable, her confidence already knocked.

"You're the only thing he could never get." Severus said, his voice full of spite. "You don't seriously think he's going to hang onto you?"

"Shut up." Lily said, covering her ears.

"Soon he'll get bored and need a new challenge. It won't be long now. Potter's the kind who get's bored very quickly." Severus said snidely.

"You're lying!" Lily said, tears streaming down her face.

"You know that I'm not. Maybe you should break up with him before he hurts you." Severus said. "I'll be here when he does."

"I'll never be with you." Lily said through gritted teeth. "Never."

She left, her shoes clicking on the stone paving of the halls as she ran. Severus sat down on a table, unsure about what had just happened, but hoping like crazy that this was the end for James and Lily.


End file.
